Lonely seal tries life in fast lane

A New Zealand fur seal is coaxed across Dunedin's Portsmouth Dr by Fulton Hogan maintenance...
A New Zealand fur seal is coaxed across Dunedin's Portsmouth Dr by Fulton Hogan maintenance contractor Jamie Harvey after it decided to rest on the centre plot. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
While many people were enjoying a day in the sun at the beach yesterday, a New Zealand fur seal decided to head to a rather unlikely spot - the middle of Dunedin's Portsmouth Dr.

The Department of Conservation received several calls from concerned motorists when the young male seal crossed two lanes of east-bound traffic and began rolling around on the grass amid the four lanes of traffic.

Department of Conservation biodiversity assets programme manager David Agnew believed the adolescent seal might have ventured outside its habitat because it was the middle of the breeding season, a time when males were particularly aggressive towards each other as they competed for females.

The seal was coaxed by passing motorists and Doc staff back across the road to Otago Harbour.

Mr Agnew encouraged drivers to be mindful of seals on roads near Dunedin's shorelines, and notify Doc staff of their presence.

"The last thing we want is for one to be run over.

"That happened in the winter of 2009 when a car ran over a fur seal on Portsmouth Dr, and it had to be put down."

It was a busy day for Doc staff as they also worked to dispose of a pygmy sperm whale which washed up on the beach south of the Moeraki Boulders.

Department of Conservation ranger Jim Fyfe said the 3m-long female was believed to have drowned after being bashed on rocks on the Moeraki peninsula and then rolled in heavy surf on to the south end of the beach.

It was not known why the whale had come so close to the shore.

Mr Fyfe believed it may have been sick.

The whale was found to have been pregnant.

Doc staff, members of the local iwi and staff from Otago Museum took samples for research purposes, and the skull and forward section of the body were given to the University of Otago geology department.

The body was later buried on the beach, he said.

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