Victorian town falls in love with Sammy the four-tonne elephant seal

September 30, 2024 11:13 PM

Victorian town falls in love with Sammy the four-tonne elephant seal. Sammy the elephant seal weighs thousands of kilograms and normally lives near Antarctica. But Portland (in Australia) locals have embraced him, while avoiding some of the trouble Tasmanians have experienced with another of his kind.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (4 comments total)

Sweet . . . and BIG. In Nov 2017 my wife was visiting Cork and found herself volunteering to drive a couple of washed up orphan harbour seals Phoca vitulina 200km across country to the Seal Rescue Ireland in Courtown Co. Wexford. She wasn't pulling out of Cork until 16:30 with darkness falling. It transpired that seals, which after all are well blubbered-up, are not able for warm cars and their driver was obliged to make the trip with the heating off and all the windows open. As this adventure had sprung up sudden-like, she had left home without leather driving gauntlets, goggles and a Crombie overcoat, so had to dress up in her running gear, + pyjamas + all the clothing she had [think Michelin]. She wrapped her head in a t-shirt re-purposed as a hijab, tied round the ears with a silk scarf.
4 months later we were invited to witness the, now herring-fattened, seals lollop down the beach and off to sea.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:01 AM on October 1 [11 favorites]

An expert says Sammy should return to his island home if he is ever to find a mate.

Like a lot of us, he’s struggling with the cost of leaving.
posted by pulposus at 12:04 AM on October 1 [2 favorites]

If this is the sort of thing you like, Deadloch may also be the sort of thing you will like.

(Sidenote: Tracey Brumby is a perfect name for an Australian peripheral character. Well done, reality.)
posted by rdc at 3:51 AM on October 1 [4 favorites]

This is like the southern hemisphere equivalent of the walruses who occasionally turn up around the coast of western Europe, like Wally, who did a tour of Cornwall, South Wales, Spain, France and the Scilly isles in 2021. Maybe some individuals among these large pinnipeds are struck by a desire to see a bit of the world before settling down with a mate. At least they'll have some stories to tell when they do.
posted by Fuchsoid at 8:57 AM on October 1 [1 favorite]