Meet the seal causing a stir Down Under—by blocking roads and playing with locals.
The blubbery 4-year-old marine mammal, dubbed Neil, has been spotted numerous times in Hobart, Australia, in recent weeks.
Jason Howlett, 38, a traffic worker, has taken to filming Neil—and supposedly forged something of a friendship with him.
“He somehow had got onto our site, and I‘d rock up about midday, and he’d just be waiting for us,” Mr. Howlett said.
One of the more memorable moments in his misadventures was when Neil sat himself down in the middle of a highway, blocking both sides of the road.
“It’s a really dangerous highway that he’s ended up on,” Mr. Howlett said. “There’s a pretty big fuss about it and that’s when the police kept having to come round.”
The officers tried to get him off the road by hand but ended up resorting to using their sirens to steer him clear.
“He’s not a fan of the sound,” Mr. Howlett said. “He knows exactly what he’s doing as well—he will switch from lane to lane if he can stop more cars that way.”
In Mr. Howlett’s videos, officers can be seen showing Neil the way off the road using traffic cones to lure him, which would have been followed by the use of sirens.
Before Neil’s dramatic exit, he had spent weeks playing with Mr. Howlett and his son at a work site.
“We spent a couple weeks just playing with him,” Mr. Howlett said, adding that his 6-year-old ventured to place a hat on his head. “He ran off immediately after, but we were able to play with him from a short distance most of the time.”
Whenever the seal saw them coming, his ears would perk up.
“He’s like a dog! Always so excited to see us,” Mr. Howlett said.
In a final farewell captured in Mr. Howlett’s footage, Neil slinks down a sandy beach and back into the water where he belongs.
According to the Marine Conservation Program, Neil is expected to grow to 16 feet in length and about 7,700 pounds in weight.
