{"id":590743,"date":"2026-09-05T06:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590743\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T06:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:34:14","slug":"leopard-seal-delights-crowds-at-petone-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590743\/","title":{"rendered":"Leopard seal delights crowds at Petone Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crowds of people gathered at Petone Beach in Wellington today to look at a large leopard seal having a nap.<\/p>\n

Photographers, dog walkers, parents and their children all stopped to see the wild animal basking in the sun.<\/p>\n

A Department of Conservation (DOC) spokesperson told 1News one of its rangers went out this morning and erected some signs warning people not to approach the leopard seal, and marked out a perimeter around it – the seal was sleeping most of the time. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Department of Conservation’s advice was to stay at least 20m away. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

They said it was “not unusual for seals to come ashore for a rest”, and urged people to stay at least 20m away at all times. <\/p>\n

“Our message is keep your distance, do not approach leopard seals and keep dogs on a lead – these animals need space and should return to the sea in a day or so,” DOC said. <\/p>\n

Members of the public were seen sitting next to a driftwood barrier, taking pictures of the animal rom a respectful distance. <\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Members of the public made a cordon around the seal out of driftwood, to prevent people from getting too close. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Leopard seals were mostly found in Antarctica, but small numbers could be found in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Just last month, Tauranga locals had a similar situation with a snoozing leopard seal near a popular boat ramp. <\/p>\n

According to DOC, a leopard seal population estimate in 1977 put the total number at 222,000-440,000 worldwide.<\/p>\n

However, it was unknown how many individuals visit\/inhabit New Zealand waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowds of people gathered at Petone Beach in Wellington today to look at a large leopard seal having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50,111,43,139,69,52],"class_list":["post-590743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-animals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}