A New Zealand fur seal pup has been rescued by a friendly farmer and a council staffer after being spotted wandering along a central Southland road — about 50km from home.

Southland District Council senior compliance officer Melissa Palmer earned “a seal of approval” from the Department of Conservation (Doc) after the unusual animal rescue, the council said in a statement on Thursday.

When Ms Palmer answered the phone at 4.30pm on Wednesday she knew straight away it was not going to be the end of just another day at the office, the statement said.

What followed over the next two hours was the recovery of one very lost seal pup from Heddon Bush, about 15 minutes’ drive west of Winton in central Southland, and its release back into the ocean at Ōreti Beach, more than 50km away.

The call centre operator said “she had a weird one for me”, Ms Palmer said.

“They said they were on the phone to a fella on a tractor on the side of the road at Heddon Bush with a seal pup.

“It was really bizarre. I was like, ‘am I hearing this right?’.”

She headed straight to the location, where she found the young man on the tractor who explained he had nearly run over the animal.

“He said that from a distance he didn't know if it was like a cat or a dog dragging the back end until he stopped and realised it was a seal.”

When Ms Palmer arrived, she called her husband Shaun to come and give her a hand.

Armed with a large sheet from her home, they  followed the direction the seal had taken across the paddock towards a shelter belt, where a herd of interested dairy cattle watched proceedings.
“It was way over near the hedge, lying on the dirt there in the paddock,” Ms Palmer said.

“It was tired, if anything, the poor bugger.

“We put the sheet over top of it and sort of rolled it into the sheet and then carried it back to the truck.”
Ms Palmer phoned Doc for further instructions and was put through to duty ranger Trevor Huggins.

He advised Ms Palmer to take the seal pup to Ōreti Beach, release it as far along the beach as she could, away from people and dogs, and watch it to make sure it went back into the water.

Mr Huggins said it was not uncommon to hear of finding hopelessly lost seals miles inland from the sea.

“He’s survived quite well by himself so he’s probably been catching fish up the creek, which means he’s probably on the verge of being weaned anyhow.”

Mr Huggins said it was a good result getting the seal back into the ocean, and a good rescue. —  Allied Media