A frozen, 3m-long female leopard seal weighing almost 300kg left Dunedin yesterday bound for a taxidermist in Christchurch.
The seal died of natural causes on Waikouaiti beach last November and since then has been in an Otago Museum freezer.
Museum research and interpretation co-ordinator Lucy Rowe said the seal was in "awesome condition" and it was planned to have it mounted for display in the nature gallery.
Christchurch taxidermist David Jacobs yesterday said he had prepared various seal species for display but it was rare to find native mammals in good enough condition for that.
Neither of the other leopard seals offered recently could be used.
One had been run over by a car on Banks Peninsula and the other had been dead too long.
He urged members of the public who found dead native birds and mammals to alert the Department of Conservation or their local museum as early as possible because they were getting "harder and harder" to find.
Mr Jacobs said working on a seal was a big project that would take more than two months.
"The whole project is very labour intensive," he said.
The hide made "very nice leather" and would be tanned in the same way as that of any other animal, although Mr Jacobs said seals were "very greasy" to handle because of their blubber.
"Literally, their blood runs thick with oil. It looks like a mixture of olive oil and [blackcurrant juice]. They are a very, very fatty animal."
Mr Jacobs said the leopard seal would have to be measured carefully before skinning because seals lost their shape without their skin.
"It's kind of like taking the skin off a sausage. Unlike other animals that have very rigid musculature, they are so thick with fat . . . that they are slug- like.
"That's where the taxidermist's skill comes in, turning something that is dead and inanimate into looking alive and pristine again."
Mr Jacobs said the leopard seal's skull was "very impressive" and compared well with that of a lion or a leopard.
"They have got fantastic canines. It is a really impressive looking beast."
Ms Rowe said the museum also planned to have the skeleton cleaned and preserved for display.
