Tauranga locals hoping to launch from a popular boat ramp this week found a lane occupied by a sleep leopard seal leading to the area being cordoned off for days.<\/p>\n
Leopard seals normally live around the Antarctic pack ice, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said, but were occasional visitors to Aotearoa during autumn and winter.<\/p>\n
DOC Biodiversity Ranger Sarah-Lyn Wilson said this particular leopard seal was found at Sulphur Point and after being alerted to his presence, DOC cordoned off the area.<\/p>\n
Wilson said locals were fascinated by the seal, but responded well to the cordon and kept their distance.<\/p>\n
“We had lots of interest from passersby, even entire classes of schoolkids were brought to have a look! It was a good opportunity to share some knowledge about seals.<\/p>\n
“We do get seals, whether they be fur seals or leopard seals, popping up around the Bay of Plenty, so it’s good for people to be aware they are wild animals and need to be given space – for their safety and ours.”<\/p>\n
The seal was identified as a juvenile male, measuring 1.7m in length – an adult male could reach up to 3m in length.<\/p>\n
Wilson said DOC usually took a hands-off approach to seals, but in this case the seal was napping in a busy area.<\/p>\n
“We had a rotating roster of DOC staff and some of our trained volunteers to keep the seal and the public safe. We’re so grateful to all the volunteers who stepped up to help.”<\/p>\n
“If you do come across a seal, it’s ok to look, but stay at least 20m away, and keep dogs and children away.”<\/p>\n
After a few days of uninterrupted rest, the leopard seal returned to the ocean.<\/p>\n
If anyone saw a seal that was severely injured, being harassed, or in danger, they should call 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tauranga locals hoping to launch from a popular boat ramp this week found a lane occupied by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-729348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}