Neil the popular Seal makes appearance in Tasmania

ABC NEWS (Australia)

If you've ever struggled for an excuse for a sickie, you could try 'I’m sorry but there's a seal blocking my driveway'. That's what one Tasmanian woman had to tell her boss this morning, when a local sea dweller popped round for a visit.

Transcript

00:00 This isn't normally where you'd expect to find a giant elephant seal.

00:05 The Tasmanian celebrity, known as Neil, lumbered 100 metres up a hill

00:11 from a southern Tasmanian beach before taking a nap in a resident's front yard.

00:17 I heard a noise outside and I thought that somebody was trying to break into my car.

00:22 So I looked out the window and then next minute I've got this big seal looking up at me in my bedroom window

00:28 and I was like, "Oh, hello!"

00:31 He squashed her letterbox before lying next to the car, which meant Amber was unable to get to work.

00:38 I think it's going to go down in the books as the best excuse in history of not to go to work.

00:43 Residents say visits like these are pretty unusual.

00:47 I always see them on the beach but never up here, not this far up.

00:51 Three-year-old Neil has been spotted at beaches around southern Tasmania in recent years.

00:57 Usually happy to loll about and flaunt his figure.

01:01 Other times, playing up to the crowd.

01:04 Elephant seals typically move onto land for three to four weeks as they molt,

01:09 so Neil could be a regular visitor.

01:11 Anyone who encounters him is advised to stand 20 metres away, giving him plenty of space.

01:17 And it was space Neil needed after a morning socialising in the neighbourhood,

01:22 making his way back to the beach.

01:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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