4) Leopard Seal Hydrurga leptonyx
One of the annoying things with marine mammals in New Zealand is that, generally speaking, you don't hear about rare or vagrant animals until they are already gone. There will be a newspaper item about an animal "seen yesterday" or "last week", and in most cases these animals don't hang around for more than a day - they haul up, get seen by a lucky few, and then depart. Over the last couple of months in Wellington I have missed an earlier Leopard Seal, two Southern Right Whales, some Killer Whales, a beached Giant Squid, and (most aggravatingly) a Weddell's Seal at Napier. Usually this is because I don't hear about them until it's too late, or otherwise because I can't get to them due to work or location.
Today I got lucky - it was Sunday so I was free, and the Leopard Seal was reported immediately because it was on the beach at Petone, which is quite peoply. I was at my sister's when I found out about it, so no photos because I didn't want to risk missing it by going all the way across the city to get my camera.
It is only the second wild Leopard Seal I've ever seen, and the last one was ten years ago (almost literally - 3 September 2008).
One of the annoying things with marine mammals in New Zealand is that, generally speaking, you don't hear about rare or vagrant animals until they are already gone. There will be a newspaper item about an animal "seen yesterday" or "last week", and in most cases these animals don't hang around for more than a day - they haul up, get seen by a lucky few, and then depart. Over the last couple of months in Wellington I have missed an earlier Leopard Seal, two Southern Right Whales, some Killer Whales, a beached Giant Squid, and (most aggravatingly) a Weddell's Seal at Napier. Usually this is because I don't hear about them until it's too late, or otherwise because I can't get to them due to work or location.
Today I got lucky - it was Sunday so I was free, and the Leopard Seal was reported immediately because it was on the beach at Petone, which is quite peoply. I was at my sister's when I found out about it, so no photos because I didn't want to risk missing it by going all the way across the city to get my camera.
It is only the second wild Leopard Seal I've ever seen, and the last one was ten years ago (almost literally - 3 September 2008).
) and got the first addition of October. One of these in a group of hundreds of black-headed and yellow-legged gulls along with a few Slender-billed gulls:
