Australia is home to a lot of exotic wildlife, but one creature in particular has become a social media celebrity.
Twice a year, a one-ton elephant seal dubbed Neil the Seal drags himself ashore near the beach towns around Hobart, Tasmania, to molt. He sprawls across the highway, catches a few winks in people’s backyards, destroys traffic cones, and rocks parked cars back and forth with his tremendous bulk.
Wildlife experts say Neil is just lonely; he has no fellow elephant seals to practice the behaviors he’ll need to secure a territory when he becomes fully grown in another five years. That’s because the nearest elephant seal colony is 1,500km away, in the subantarctic. Officials believe Neil’s mother got lost on her way there and ended up giving birth to Neil on the Tasman Peninsula five years ago, which is why Neil has no company.
Photo: Instagram
Celebrity status
As with many stray large animals, like walruses in England or Norway, Neil has become a tourist attraction. His TikTok following of 1.4 million exceeds the entire half-million population of Tasmania, according to Science Alert. YouTube features dozens of videos of the lonely pinniped.
“There is a risk here of essentially loving Neil to death,” warns Kris Carlyon of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania. He begs that admirers not get too close; some have brought their babies up to Neil to get close-up photos for Instagram.
The twice-yearly excursions ashore where they are born are common for elephant seals shedding their old skin. Neil’s rubbing against objects is part of that process, while pushing against parked cars is jousting play that other young elephant seals do with each other.
While Neil is already gigantic, at three meters long and one ton, he will be five meters long and four tons when fully grown, and his call will be as loud as a chainsaw. Adult elephant seals are also much more territorial.
