Cape fur seal spotted waddling down Jakes Gerwel Drive
That’s a long way from the ocean!
A Cape Fur Seal found its way to Jakes Gerwel Drive in Cape
Town - several kilometres away from the nearest ocean.
The seal was spotted opposite the Vangate Mall near a busy intersection in Athlone. Cape Town politician, Alderman JP Smith, says various enforcement services secured the scene while waiting for the SPCA to arrive.
"The seal has been contained and will be kept for observations, then released back into its natural environment. The mysterious circumstances of its arrival will be investigated by the SPCA. The Cape Fur seal is only found around our local waters and is one of the strongest, most muscular seals. When provoked, it can deliver a nasty bite," he said.
When SPCA officials, Chief Inspector Jaco Pieterse and Inspector Lwazi Ntungele, arrived at the scene they found the seal wandering about in traffic
The SPCA has revealed that the seal is an adult female.
"Quite how a seal got to be there in the first place so far from the ocean will remain a mystery. One theory is that it had swum into a canal and was washed further away by strong currents, or that it was intended to be an unusual Christmas gift for someone’s mother-in-law and then merely dumped when its captor saw the price of fish!" the Cape of Good Hope SPCA teased.
A crowd that had gathered at the scene named her 'Santa The Seal'. She has since been released back into the ocean.
"Santa the seal skipped into the water and swam off with a wave of her flipper, her Christmas shopping will have to wait."
Click here for more pictures and videos from Santa the seal's trip to the city.
Main image credit: Facebook/JP Smith