Hot on the flippers of another rare visitor, a juvenile elephant seal visited St Kilda Beach yesterday.
The Department of Conservation says the southern elephant seal, a resident of New Zealand’s subantarctic islands, is the largest species of seal in the world.
Males grow up to 5m in length.
When they visit the mainland they may stay in an area for weeks.
Photo: Stephen Jaquiery
In 2016, an elephant seal drew crowds on the inner city banks of the Water of Leith.
In 2018, another startled visitors to the Kakanui River mouth for a few weeks.
On Sunday and Monday this week, another subantarctic seal, a leopard seal, came ashore little more than 1km along the beach at St Clair.
