Far from the sea
Seal gets lost in cow pasture in Australia
TV stations in Australia are currently reporting extensively on the seal on the cow pasture
©Screenshot / Twitter
A seal has appeared in a cow pasture in Australia, many kilometers from the sea. At times, the animal even chased after the cows. Attempts to rescue the stately marine mammal were in vain.
In Australia, a seal got lost in a cow pasture on a dairy farm. The strange thing is that the pasture is about 35 kilometers from the sea and nobody knows how the marine mammal, which is estimated to weigh 150 kilograms, got there. Animal rescuers tried in vain to help the seal and bring it back to the sea. He was eventually euthanized, as “ABC.net” reported on Thursday. Several television stations had previously reported on the case.
The farmer’s wife in the south-eastern state of Victoria discovered the animal last Sunday as it crawled across the pasture under the helpless gaze of her cows. “We drove the tractor across the pasture and at first thought it was a pig. When it started moving, we saw that it was definitely not a pig, but a seal,” Karli McGee had previously said on television. At that time she was still hoping for rescue for the strange guest on the cow pasture.
TV stations also showed video footage this week of the seal chasing the cows. Apparently the animal was stressed being so far away from its natural habitat.
Melbourne Zoo employees should examine the seal and then bring it back to the sea if possible, since it did not find its way back on its own, it was said at first.
But that didn’t work out in the end. Michael Lynch, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, told ABC.net that the animal was old and injured, blind in one eye and with broken teeth. The seal had been put to sleep, which was the best thing for him in this situation.
How did the seal get so far inland in Australia?
Until now it was completely unclear which way the marine mammal had taken from the coast to the dairy farm. The young farmer said on television that it was about a half-hour drive from her land in Simpson town to the beach. She suggested in an interview that the animal swam inland across small rivers in the region and then went ashore in search of food.
Video taken by McGee shows the seal crossing a pasture. “We are not allowed to approach him, so we cannot save him ourselves,” said the farmer’s wife on TV. He’d progressed quite a bit inland since his first sighting and was now on her parents’ adjacent property, she’d last said.
But that’s where the journey inland ended for the seal: Because a little later, the animal experts from the zoo in Melbourne decided to put the lost marine mammal to sleep.
Sources: ABC Not,”7 NewsMelbourne“, with material from AFP
Take a look at the photo gallery: there is plenty of space in Australia. This is also reflected in the accommodation options. Whether city hotel, lodge or hostel – the rooms are mostly spacious.