‘Chilling’ elephant seal draws crowds of holidaymakers
A young elephant seal is continuing to pull the crowds in the Bay of Plenty.
Over the past couple of weeks, the juvenile seal has made his way from Auckland to set up camp in Whakata¯ne – and his arrival has been greeted with plenty of interest from bystanders.
The Department of Conversation (DOC) has been kept busy putting up temporary fences to ensure that there is space between the seal and the public.
"He’s definitely drawing the crowds in – people are flocking to the riverbank to catch a glimpse of the big elephant seal. But he’s just on holiday, he’s chilling,’’ DOC Eastern Bay of Plenty manager Jade King-Hazel said.
She said it wasn’t very common for an elephant seal to be in the Eastern Bay of Plenty by itself, let alone as far inland as he was.
‘‘But he’s definitely here and letting it be known. He was out at Coastlands beach last week having a swim and a good time out there. Then he came into the Whakata¯ ne River, and he’s been in quite a few public places, so a lot of people are where he tends to just park on up. But he’s been around Whakata¯ ne for nearly two weeks now.’’
She said there wasn’t a lot DOC could do at the moment, given the seal’s size.
DOC’s main goal at the moment was to protect both the public and the seal, which meant ensuring that he had some space between him and the water.
‘‘It’s important that people don’t get too close . . . he’s pretty chilled out most of the time but he could become aggressive if people get too close, due to him being territorial.’’
The seal is thought to be a couple of years old, based on his snout size, meaning he has not yet reached his fully grown size.
Elephant seals can live up to about 30 years.
People have been calling the DOC hotline to inform them where the seal’s latest adventure has taken him to.
‘‘People have been worried because he can just lie around for hours hardly moving, so they think he’s sick or hurt, but he’s fine as far as we can tell,’’ KingHazel said. ‘‘But he’s perfectly fine, he’s just chilling out.’’