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Show captionA fur seal basks in the sun at Kaikoura Peninsula, New Zealand. From
May to December, adult males and freshly weaned pups from the country’s growing
fur seal population leave their breeding colonies. Photograph: Sanka
Vidanagama/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
New Zealand


HOME INVASIONS AND ROADBLOCKS: NEW ZEALAND ON ALERT AS ‘SEAL SILLY SEASON’
BEGINS

Public notice issued to watch out for the flippered creatures as they start to
leave their breeding colonies and venture out into New Zealand

Tess McClure in Auckland
Fri 16 Jun 2023 22.00 CEST
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1 year old

Sunbathing on roads, breaking through catflaps, visiting film sets, invading
homes and taking in the heat of backyard spa bath covers – New Zealand’s “seal
silly season” has officially begun and the country is bracing for an influx of
adolescent marine mammals exploring the country’s highways, patios and golf
courses.

Seal breaks into New Zealand home, traumatises cat and hangs out on couch

This week, the government issued a formal public notice that “seal season” had
begun – and New Zealanders could expect to encounter higher numbers of the
flippered young creatures out and about, exploring human-dominated spaces. From
May until December, adult males and freshly weaned pups from New Zealand’s
growing fur seal population will leave their breeding colonies and head out into
the wider world – many for the first time. They’re young, inexperienced and
prone to adolescent misbehaviour and mishaps, hitting the wider world en masse
like a cohort of fresh-minted spring breakers.

“I call it seal silly season,” says Prof Louise Chilvers, an ecologist
specialising in marine wildlife at Massey University. “It’s like having a
teenager being kicked out of the home – they don’t quite know what to do, don’t
quite know where to feed, don’t quite know what to do with themselves. They’ve
got all this freedom, so they go do a bit of exploring,” she says. “Especially
in the middle of winter, it’s cold, and there’s lots of nice warm places – like
right in the middle of a tar seal road where it’s held all its heat from the
day.”

The road to Allans Beach in Portobello on Dunedin’s Otago Peninsula, New
Zealand. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

Last year, one young seal broke into a home via the catflap, hung out on the
couch and spent several hours traumatising the family cat before being escorted
back to the sea. In 2021, a seal nicknamed “Sammy” spent more than a week
occupying Hobbiton, the film set used on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
series, sunbathing and throwing eels around the lake. State highways are
semi-regularly blocked by seals that have chosen them as a relaxation spot: last
year, a reclining seal blocked State Highway 1, and the year before a pup
stopped traffic on State Highway 25 as parents ferried their children to school.

A seal pup relaxes in a New Zealand home last year

The Department of Conservation warned the public that the pups were “exploratory
by nature and exhibit some strange behaviours when hauled-up on land”, but
should be left alone unless they were in immediate danger. People “may feel
concerned seeing young pups alone, or seals regurgitating, sneezing, coughing or
crying”, they said.



Laura Boren, a marine science adviser for the department, says that despite the
season hitting every year, the department typically receives a flood of calls
about the sea creatures turning up in odd spots. While many will stick to the
beaches, some pups are more intrepid, ending up more than 90km from the shore.

“It’s a good conservation story that they are coming back,” Boren says, with the
species recovering substantially since its numbers were decimated by sealing
ships between the 1790s and 1940s. As the population returns, “they’ve been
recolonising from the south to the north, and they’ve been starting to recover
much of their former range”, she says. “But essentially, what we’re seeing now …
is that they’re now coming into areas where we have a lot more human
population.”

A sleepy fur seal in Canterbury, on the South Island. Photograph: David C
Tomlinson/Getty Images

New Zealand’s sea lions are far rarer than seals, but as the species recovers,
they too are increasingly exploring new places: occupying golf courses,
conducting pitch invasions at football matches, and in one case, shutting down a
busy section of road for several weeks after a sea lion mother chose it as a
nursery spot.

As the spring breeding season approaches, marine mammals can also become
confused, and seek love in the wrong places. In 2021, a flat of students blowing
a conch shell attracted the affections of an amorous, 350kg male sea lion that
demolished some of their garden and spent part of the day roaring through the
windows after mistaking the noise for a prospective mate.

A sea lion sunbathes near Dunedin. Photograph: Sanka
Vidanagama/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Both seals and sea lions are legally protected in New Zealand and conservation
officers typically take a hands-off approach when they’re exploring, disturbing
them only if they are in immediate danger and otherwise asking that people steer
clear, slow down on open roads, keep their dogs on a leash, and enjoy their
company from 20 metres away.


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Topics
 * New Zealand

 * Mammals
 * Wildlife
 * Animals
 * Asia Pacific
 * Marine life
 * news

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