Southern elephant seal seen in Rooi-Els
Residents of the village of Rooi-Els, a small community in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, spotted a young bull southern elephant seal on the morning of 5 July.
The massive seal was alive and seemingly uninjured.
Residents concerned with the rare appearance of this gigantic creature phoned CapeNature and other relevant authorities in the area. They reported he appeared healthy and was simply off course from the sub-Antartic and Antartic region.
According to a researcher who worked on Marion Island, where southern elephant seals commonly live, these seals are reportedly found ashore in South Africa approximately once a year. After about eight hours of resting on the beach, the seal slowly made his way back into the water only to return a few hours later.
A few days later he finally headed back to sea for good. This isn’t the first time residents of Rooi-Els have been lucky enough to spot an elephant seal on their shores. Several years ago a fully mature elephant seal bull camped out on a beach on the other side of the Rooi-Els village for over a week before returning to sea.
-Joselyn Mormile