[WATCH] It’s sealy season: Cape fur seal found wandering in traffic
Mystery surrounds the discovery of a wandering seal which was spotted by motorists along Jakes Gerwel Drive.
The female sea animal was seen near Vangate Mall on Wednesday morning and has since been taken back to its natural habitat.
Cape of Good Hope SPCA Chief Inspector Jaco Pieterse and Inspector Lwazi Ntungele were at the scene to removed the animal.
“It seems not even Cape Town’s wildlife is immune to the Christmas spirit,” quips Jaco.
He adds: “At a time of year when the shops are packed and companies are vying for our attention with all kinds of gimmicks in order to sell the latest fad, we are quite used to seeing strange things at the malls.
But when the Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department received a call about a Cape fur seal crossing the busy Jakes Gerwel Drive opposite the Vangate Mall this morning, even we had to wonder.”
Traffic cops were also called to the scene to control curious onlookers.
“We found a large adult female Cape Fur Seal wandering about into traffic, while attracting a crowd of bemused onlookers.
“The City of Cape Town’s Metro Police were also on scene and controlling the traffic to keep the animal safe,” says Jaco.
He says SPCA inspectors acted fast to get the animal safely into a crate before a quick health assessment and on its way to the nearest quiet beach where it can recover from its ordeal in peace.
“Quite interesting how a seal got to be there in the first place so far from the ocean will remain a mystery,” says Jaco.
“One theory is that it had swum into a canal and was washed further away by strong currents, or that it was intended to be an unusual Christmas gift for someone’s mother-in-law and then merely dumped when its captor saw the price of fish!
“Either way, Santa the seal (as she was named by onlookers), skipped into the water and swam off with a wave of her flipper, her Christmas shopping will have to wait,” he adds.