Rare discovery made in leopard seal excrement
News of an Invercargill woman’s USB stick discovered in leopard seal excrement has created headlines throughout the world.
The excrement, taken off Oreti Beach, near Invercargill, in December 2017, had been in a freezer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Wellington for 13 months. It was thawed and examined in the past fortnight.
NIWA put out a media release this week about discovering the USB stick that was still in working order. On Tuesday night, as Amanda Nally, of Invercargill, watched a television news item about the stick and footage from it, she thought: ‘‘gosh, that looks familiar’’.
By the end of the item, she knew it was her stick and contacted NIWA.
In December 2017, Nally put the video footage of sea lions in the south Catlins onto the stick. Four days later she was at Oreti Beach with the stick in her pocket.
‘‘I had no idea I had dropped the USB – it’s favourite footage so I’ve got it backed up all over the place,’’ Nally said.
‘‘I did a huge double take when I saw it flash up on a local news bulletin.’’
NIWA staff told Nally the stick was surrounded by feathers and small bird bones.
‘‘They thought it may have been accidentally dropped by me, then picked up by a seabird, which was in turn eaten by a leopard seal,’’ Nally said.
NIWA media adviser Susan Pepperell said news organisations all over the world had been in contact about the stick.
‘‘It’s gone viral in Germany.’’ The post NIWA put on its Twitter account had received 1.5 million impressions.