Tasmania falls for Neil the Seal, a 1,000-pound beach bum

He showed up at our door uninvited, slept on the way and called the police. But the residents of a coastal area in southern Tasmania, Australia, have been extremely forgiving of their invader; he is a seal after all.

The more than 1,300-kilogram southern elephant seal, affectionately called Neil (the seal) by locals, appears received public attention in Australia last year when he sneaked into a beachside neighborhood near Hobart, the capital of the island state of Tasmania, where he hurled with traffic cones And lay quietly in the sun.

Last month Neil decided to do just that to take a nap in front of a woman’s car, thwarting her plans to leave the house. “I think this will go down as the best excuse in history not to go to work,” the woman said said at the time. Neil has since gained worldwide fame for his antics: enjoyment a shower of a garden hose, growling with its belly up on a threshold and appear charging towards a group of people on a lawn.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Sonya Hay, who lives in a southern Tasmanian town where Neil was spotted this month. “He is actually the talk of the town.”

While it is not unusual for southern elephant seals to come ashore – the marine mammals spend several weeks on land each year to molt their fur – Neil is probably unique in his visits to communities near Hobart, says Clive R. McMahon, an ecologist at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, who has studied the behavior of elephant seals.

Unlike other seals born in nearby wild colonies, Neil, who is only a few years old, was born on a beach near the city, possibly because his mother got lost, Dr McMahon said. But without other young seals to socialize and swim with, Neil most likely had a lonely childhood. Elephant seals, added Dr. McMahon added, “they will usually return to the places where they were born – so that’s probably why Neil thinks this is his home.”

However, there are always concerns when wild animals, especially those as big as Neil, become too comfortable around humans. This year, citing safety concerns for travelers, authorities in Connecticut killed a moose which walked to Bradley Airport. Last year, a 1,300-pound walrus named Freya suffered the same fate after climbing onto piers and boats off the coast of Oslo, Norway. And last year authorities had to relocate Neil after he was harassed by dogs and people, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said in a statement in April.

The department warned that Neil would eventually grow to be more than 15 feet tall and weigh more than 7,500 pounds, becoming potentially dangerous if provoked. “It is critical that he does not become accustomed to being around people,” Sam Thalmann, a wildlife biologist with the department, said at the time. The department would not provide further information about Neil or respond to questions about whether intervention might be necessary again in the future.

Dr. McMahon, the Sydney-based ecologist, said it was likely that Neil, who is being monitored by scientists using a GPS stuck to the fur on his head, would continue to return to the Hobart region unless, through a stroke of luck or a very long swim, Neil came across another group of elephant seals with which to breed. “The prospects,” added Dr. McMahon added, “not looking great for him.”

For now, Neil seems to be living out his days near a fish and chip shop in a rural community about 40 kilometers east of Hobart, where he alternates between using a boat ramp and the middle of the road.

“He’s very calm, very funny; it’s not moving,” said Sandra Wray, the restaurant’s owner, recounting how her staff, concerned for Neil’s safety, notified police, who helped guide the seal back into the water using a siren . Its gray color, she added, “is almost the same color as the bitumen,” which would make it challenging for a driver to spot the seal on the road.

Tasmania Police did not respond to questions about how many complaints they had received, or whether they had encountered other similar wildlife situations.

Some residents said that while they had heard the occasional complaint, Neil was generally well-liked by the community and only seemed to take action when people got too close.

“Honestly, at first I thought he was dead because he was just laying there,” Stephen Godfrey, who lives in another neighborhood where Neil has been seen, said of the first time he saw Neil on the sand near his home. “But then he started moving.”

“He’s been here on and off for a while,” said Mr Godfrey, 34, adding that he hoped Neil would continue to visit the coastal region, where he had left many of the residents in awe. “He’s kind of part of the community now.”