{"id":327096,"date":"2025-12-04T11:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/327096\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T11:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:56:09","slug":"baby-seal-caught-on-video-in-new-zealand-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/327096\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby seal caught on video in New Zealand bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

WELLINGTON, New Zealand \u2014 A seal<\/a> walked into a bar. Or to use a technical term, it galumphed.<\/p>\n

The creature was apparently lost, curious and well below New Zealand<\/a>\u2019s legal drinking age. It lodged itself under the dishwasher and showed no interest in calling a cab.<\/p>\n

It was a wet, lazy Sunday evening when the baby fur seal waddled into the Sprig+Fern The Meadows craft beer bar in Richmond, at the top of New Zealand\u2019s South Island. Accustomed to seeing animals in the pet-friendly bar, co-owner Bella Evans assumed the visitor was a dog before she took a closer look.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was in shock,\u201d Evans said. \u201cOh my gosh. What do we do? What\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SecurityThis security footage provided by Sprig + Fern The Meadows, shows a seal entering a bar in Richmond, New Zealand, on Nov. 30, 2025. (Sprig + Fern The Meadows via AP)Sprig + Fern The Meadows \/ via AP<\/p>\n

A patron grabbed a sweater and tried to usher the seal out of the back door. Evading its pursuers, the creature dashed into a restroom and then hid under the dishwasher, which was swiftly unplugged.<\/p>\n

Another customer fetched a dog crate from home, and Evans made a plan to lure the unruly visitor out of its hiding place using a pizza topping the pub was offering as a special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just went to my fianc\u00e9, I said, grab the salmon! Grab the salmon!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then it was a brief wait for conservation rangers to arrive. It turned out they were already tracking the wandering seal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was their fourth call for the day,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThey had been driving around this new-build subdivision trying to find this baby seal.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s conservation agency confirmed it received \u201cnumerous\u201d reports from the public about a seal spotted in Richmond on Sunday before the fugitive turned up at the pub. Bar staff \u201cdid a great job keeping the seal safe\u201d until rangers arrived, said Department of Conservation spokesperson Helen Otley.<\/p>\n

The seal was released on nearby Rabbit Island, considered a safe location because of its dog-free status, Otley said. It\u2019s not unusual for curious young seals to show up in unexpected places at this time of year, she added, as they follow rivers and streams up to 9 miles inland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can turn up in unusual places, like this pub, but this is normal exploratory behavior,\u201d Otley said.<\/p>\n

Successful conservation programs in New Zealand have resulted in growing seal and sea lion populations, bringing them into closer contact with humans than before. Scientists refer to an annual \u201csilly season\u201d for both species, a period of months during which they regularly appear in strange places \u2014 houses, golf courses or busy roads.<\/p>\n

Evans, who has owned the pub with her partner for just a few months, said the baby fur seal was the first unruly patron she\u2019s had to evict. But she said the animal, named Fern by staff, was welcome back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been the running joke that we\u2019ve got the seal of approval,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Salmon will remain on the menu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WELLINGTON, New Zealand \u2014 A seal walked into a bar. Or to use a technical term, it galumphed.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-327096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}