Leopard seal pays a return visit to harbour
LEOPARD seal sighting season — if that is indeed a thing — has begun.
While very little is known about leopard seals, there seemed to be a spike in sightings in August, September, and October, Leopardseals.org research assistant Giverny Forbes, of Dunedin, said.
For the second time in eight days, Miss Forbes was at Oamaru Harbour yesterday to observe a 2m young adult male leopard seal resting beside Normanby wharf.
‘‘We’re still learning about how often they are coming ashore — are they coming back to the same place? So this guy has come back to the same place twice,’’ she said.
‘‘I saw him a week ago on Monday. He was here, doing the same thing. Same spot, just sleeping. So he seems to have found a good spot to haul out.’’
And it was possible the leopard seal could become a regular visitor.
‘‘Since he’s done it once, that always increases the chances of something happening again,’’ Miss Forbes said. ‘‘He might have identified this as a good haulout spot. We’ve had other individuals that we know of haul out in the same spot time and time again. It’ll be really interesting to see if he does the same.’’
In the past week, five leopard seals had been spotted between Kaka Point and southern Canterbury.
Miss Forbes said beyond tracking the whereabouts of leopard seals — identified by their spots — she was ‘‘excited’’ to come back to Oamaru, hoping to find another scat sample to learn what the seal had eaten for the past eight days.
The species was known to eat fish and birds, but a ‘‘detailed analysis’’ had yet to be done.
The Department of Conservation (Doc) website notes leopard seals ‘‘primarily inhabit the Antarctic pack ice’’, but in autumn and winter they disperse northward throughout the Southern Ocean; some animals have been known to spend a year or more in New Zealand waters.
Oamaru Doc field ranger Tom Waterhouse said leopard seals were known to visit Oamaru Harbour’s boatramps and area beaches at this time of year and stay for ‘‘a few hours, days or even weeks’’.
People should keep 20m from leopard seals and keep dogs leashed. Sightings should be reported to Doc or Leopardseals.org.
A leopard seal was found shot dead in Northland at the end of July, which Leopardseals.org cofounder Dr Ingrid Visser called a ‘‘coldblooded execution of a defenceless animal’’.