An elephant seal was found wandering around a coastal town in Chile.
A large elephant seal broke Chile's overnight curfew and was found wandering around a coastal town in the South American country. According to The Guardian, residents of Puerto Cisnes were surprised to see the marine mammal travelling through the streets of their town on Monday night.
The elephant seal, weighing a whopping two-tonne, was filmed by several people hefting itself through the roads for a few blocks before help arrived to rescue it. Eyewitnesses said that it was not aggressive and appeared confused. It is believed that the seal became disoriented after coming ashore.
Several videos of the massive elephant seal have flooded social media. According to one tweet, the animal managed to haul itself around for 10 blocks before townspeople and emergency services were able to help it.
Police, navy officers and neighbours used black tarpaulins to drive the seal back to water. One video shared on Twitter shows several people working together to guide the seal back to sea.
"My son noticed first. I was scared at the beginning, but since they move slowly, I calmed down and told him to record it," local woman Antonia was quoted as saying by news website Infobae. "I have never seen one so close, and much less in the middle of the city. We always see these animals in the sea... But what we saw here was that the animal was scared."
Elephant seals are large marine mammals with flippers that help them move easily in water. Southern elephant seals, which live in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters, are the largest of all seals.
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