{"id":770594,"date":"2026-06-30T20:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770594\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:21:13","slug":"neil-the-seal-continues-to-attract-attention-in-southern-tasmania-during-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770594\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil the seal continues to attract attention in southern Tasmania during visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil the seal continues to draw crowds and cause damage as the famous elephant seal remains in southern Tasmania for his annual moult, with locals flocking to catch a glimpse of the one-tonne animal.<\/p>\n

The social media star has been sleeping next to a service station at night and attracting onlookers during the day, prompting authorities to urge people to stay away.<\/p>\n

Neil has made himself at home in the Clarence Council area during this season\u2019s visit, generating tens of millions of views on social media and making his way into overseas news outlets like CNN over the past week.<\/p>\n

Clarence Mayor Brendan Blomeley said Neil has caused damage to public property.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Department of Natural Resources and Environment are helping manage Neil<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment we don\u2019t have a complete understanding of the damage Neil has caused to public infrastructure but he has obviously knocked over a number of poles and bollards,\u201d Blomeley told Pulse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that until he completes his moulting process, he\u2019ll continue to scratch up against things to help shed his old fur.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Authorities urged the public to stay at least 20 metres from Neil. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

Blomeley said a full assessment would only be possible once Neil returned to the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil then, I encourage everyone to please give Neil the space he needs and not to attempt to visit him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he is of great interest, he is also potentially dangerous and does pose a risk to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil shut down an intersection at Seven Mile Beach on Saturday after parking himself in the middle of the road, forcing police and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to intervene.<\/p>\n

\"\"The elephant seal has made himself at home in the Clarence Council area. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

He eventually made his way back toward the beach, where crowds gathered to watch.<\/p>\n

Wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said Neil was now five and a half years old and pushing close to 1,000 kilograms, with his size and confidence making him harder to manage than previous years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing changes in Neil\u2019s behaviour every time he visits,\u201d Carlyon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s certainly growing and with that his confidence is probably growing a fair bit as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"People were asked not to share Neil\u2019s location to protect him from crowds<\/p>\n

Carlyon said Neil was \u201cvery glued into people and activity and movement\u201d and would likely investigate anyone who got too close.<\/p>\n

He said experts use a range of techniques to manage him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd each and every time he hauls out we\u2019re having to test those old tools and methods and try new ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we employ an adaptive management strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re constantly trialling and testing new things and as Neil works out how to get around those we\u2019re introducing new techniques as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The elephant seal has made himself at home in the Clarence Council area. Image \/ Sam Volker<\/p>\n

Some of the techniques include padded poles and boards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may look a little confronting but I can certainly assure everyone that nothing that we do is hurting Neil,\u201d Carlyon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s really with his best interests and the public front and centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged the public to continue to stay at least 20 metres away and keep dogs on a leash at least 50 metres away.<\/p>\n

\"\"Neil sleeping on the side of the road on Monday night. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

Neil rose to fame in 2022 after playing with traffic cones during his moulting period.<\/p>\n

Videos of him blocking roads, napping on lawns and knocking over bollards have since drawn millions of views on TikTok and Instagram.<\/p>\n

People are asked not to share his current location to protect him from crowds.<\/p>\n

Sightings or concerns can be reported to the marine mammal hotline on 0427 942 537.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neil the seal continues to draw crowds and cause damage as the famous elephant seal remains in southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-770594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770594","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=770594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}