{"id":496175,"date":"2026-02-28T19:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496175\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T19:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:53:08","slug":"lost-baby-seal-rescued-after-taking-a-nap-on-the-jersey-shore-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496175\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost baby seal rescued after taking a nap on the Jersey Shore highway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why did the seal cross the road? To take a nap. <\/p>\n

A baby grey seal chose a treacherous spot to catch some z\u2019s this week \u2014 in the middle of a busy Jersey Shore road on Long Beach Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was something I\u2019ve never seen,\u201d Harvey Cedars Police Chief Robert Burnaford told The Post.<\/p>\n

\"AA baby grey seal wandered a long way from the ocean and lay down to take a nap in the middle of a four-lane highway. A passerby spotted the seal and called police. Marine Mammal Stranding Center\/ Instagram<\/p>\n

The 6-to 8-week-old female arrived in the early morning hours Tuesday and was dozing when a shocked passerby noticed her and rushed to alert police.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019d come all the way up Long Beach Boulevard from the beach and crossed three lanes,\u201d said Bumaford. \u201cThat\u2019s a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seals move on land by \u201cgalumphing<\/a>,\u201d a caterpillar-like, belly-flop motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe officers, along with someone from our DPW [Department of Public Works] team carefully removed our unexpected guest to a safer location away from traffic,\u201d Burnaford said. <\/p>\n

They called the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC), who raced to the seal\u2019s side and whisked her back to their care facility in Brigantine.<\/p>\n

The MMSC said the lucky little seal <\/a>had no injuries, but \u201cwas in a very thin overall body condition and weighed 34.8 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA Harvey Cedars police officer carefully packed the baby seal up to take her to safety. Marine Mammal Stranding Center\/ Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is underweight (she should weigh roughly 50-60 pounds), which is the primary reason she has been admitted to our hospital. If all goes well, she will be with us for about eight weeks and then released back into the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

They pampered the poor pup with a special formula with a side order of fish, and said she\u2019s getting lots of rest but was still in guarded condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is unusual to find a seal in the middle of the road, MMSC responds to a handful of calls every season for seals that have roamed up beach access paths into parking lots, backyards and residential streets,\u201d the center wrote in a Facebook post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cGrey seal pups in particular are known for having the tendency of wandering off the beaten path and getting lost looking for a way to get back to the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pup likely did not learn how to eat very well on her own after being weaned from her mother. Grey seals only nurse for about two weeks, and once weaned they are completely independent. They weigh about 30-35 pounds when they\u2019re born.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnaford said the wayward wanderer was lucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful no one hit her. Drivers should pay attention because you never know what you\u2019re going to find in the road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why did the seal cross the road? To take a nap. A baby grey seal chose a treacherous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3755,18379,44595,5871,1997,79,74388,194,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-496175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-rescue","9":"tag-cute-animals","10":"tag-jersey-shore","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-jersey","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-seals","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}