{"id":168822,"date":"2025-12-05T02:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/168822\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T02:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:48:07","slug":"baby-fur-seal-wanders-into-a-bar-in-new-zealand-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/168822\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby fur seal wanders into a bar in New Zealand | New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">On a wet, lazy Sunday evening a baby fur seal waddled into a 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 initially assumed the visitor was a dog before she took a closer look.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cEveryone was in shock,\u201d Evans said. \u201cOh my gosh. What do we do? What\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The creature was apparently lost and curious. Scientists refer to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/jan\/08\/new-zealand-sea-lion-breeding-season-summer-holidays-overlap-dunedin-golf-course\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">annual \u201csilly season\u201d for seals and sea lions<\/a>, a period of months during which they regularly appear in strange places \u2013 houses, golf courses or busy roads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A customer grabbed a sweater and tried to usher the seal out of the back door. Evading its pursuers, the creature dashed into a bathroom and then hid under the dishwasher, which was swiftly unplugged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Another customer fetched a dog crate from home, and Evans made a plan to lure the visitor out of its hiding place using a pizza topping the pub was offering as a special. \u201cI just went to my fiance, I said, \u2018grab the salmon! Grab the salmon!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Then it was a brief wait for conservation rangers to arrive. It turned out they were already tracking the wandering seal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\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<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">New Zealand\u2019s Department of Conservation (DoC) confirmed it received \u201cnumerous\u201d reports from the public about a seal spotted in Richmond on Sunday before it turned up at the pub. Bar staff \u201cdid a great job keeping the seal safe\u201d until rangers arrived, said DoC spokesperson Helen Otley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The seal was released on nearby Rabbit Island, considered a safe location because of its dog-free status, Otley said. It\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/jun\/17\/home-invasions-and-roadblocks-new-zealand-on-alert-as-seal-silly-season-begins\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">not unusual for curious young seals to show up in unexpected places<\/a> at this time of year, she added, as they follow rivers and streams up to 15 km (9 miles) inland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThey can turn up in unusual places, like this pub, but this is normal exploratory behaviour,\u201d Otley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Successful conservation programs in New Zealand have resulted in growing seal and sea lion populations, bringing them into closer contact with humans than before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Evans, who has owned the pub with her partner for just a few months, said the baby fur seal was the first patron she\u2019s had to evict. But she said the animal, named Fern by staff, was welcome back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThere\u2019s been the running joke that we\u2019ve got the seal of approval,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a wet, lazy Sunday evening a baby fur seal waddled into a craft beer bar in Richmond,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-168822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}