{"id":540818,"date":"2026-07-09T10:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/540818\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:24:12","slug":"neil-the-one-tonne-elephant-seal-causing-traffic-jams-in-rural-tasmania-has-returned-to-sea-for-now-tasmania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/540818\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil the one-tonne elephant seal causing traffic jams in rural Tasmania has returned to sea \u2013 for now | Tasmania"},"content":{"rendered":"

A one-tonne southern elephant seal named Neil, whose beachside antics<\/a> have attracted millions of views on social media, appears to have returned to sea.<\/p>\n

The five-year-old has spent several weeks at his usual twice-yearly haul-out spot in southern Tasmania<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Videos of Neil crushing signs and poles and lounging on suburban streets near fences have gone viral online and attracted streams of visitors to the otherwise sleepy coastal town.<\/p>\n

\"NeilNeil the seal wreaks beautiful havoc in southern Tasmania \u2013 video<\/p>\n

But on Thursday, Tasmania\u2019s Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) said it appeared Neil had left the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeil the Seal returned safely to sea last night. This is his natural behaviour and was expected,\u201d the department said in a statement.<\/p>\n

He may still return or haul-out at a nearby location in the short term, they said, or be off to southern feeding grounds.<\/p>\n

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NRE said its marine conservation program was monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n

However, authorities were unable to directly track Neil. An NRE spokesperson told the Guardian that while a satellite tracking device was attached to Neil in 2023, it fell off during his annual moult \u201cas expected and was recovered in 2024\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeil has not been tracked since 2024, as attaching a tracking device is usually done during a specific need like if veterinary or relocation intervention is undertaken,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Neil nuzzles up to bollards he has damaged. Photograph: Sam Volker Photography\/AP<\/p>\n

When the then teenaged seal was able to be tracked, data showed that he spent six months at sea, foraging over 1,600km from the south-west of Tasmania, covering a distance of more than 5,000km during the round trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is normal behaviour for a young male southern elephant seal,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Neil\u2019s departure came as the crowds of visitors flocking to see the local celebrity reached potentially dangerous levels.<\/p>\n

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Wildlife authorities issued a firm warning, telling people to keep their distance from Neil<\/a> and saying euthanasia was a last resort if public safety could not be guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Neil was born in southern Tasmania without a colony and is pre-programmed to return to the area twice a year to rest and moult. Tasmania\u2019s southern elephant seal colonies were wiped out by sealers in the 1800s, and most breed on Macquarie and Heard Islands.<\/p>\n

Kris Carlyon, the head of wildlife health and marine life at NRE, said Neil was \u201cpotentially one of the first southern elephant seal pups to be born back in Tasmania\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of the resource burden and the challenges that Neil throws, we\u2019re pleased to see him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Local authorities have asked anyone who spots Neil to contact the marine mammal hotline<\/a>. The public has been reminded to keep at least 20 metres away, keep dogs on a lead at least 50 metres away, and avoid blocking his access to water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll keep an eye out for him but otherwise the traffic cones and street signs of Tasmania can breathe a small sigh of relief,\u201d the Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big well done for everyone that has treated big Neil with respect and caution while he\u2019s been on land.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A one-tonne southern elephant seal named Neil, whose beachside antics have attracted millions of views on social media,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-540818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}