Neil weighs 2,200 pounds and has 1.4 million followers on TikTok, more than twice the human population of Tasmania. He is an elephant seal, five years old, and every June he drags himself ashore for a visit to seaside towns in the south of the state. Twice a year, in fact. The towns do not always enjoy it.
His list of offences is long. He has bent traffic bollards, knocked down a sign warning people about seals and failed to clear a fence he tried to vault. Cars are not safe from him either. Most of the day he simply lies in one spot, sometimes in the middle of the road, and traffic stops around him.
Neil is the only male elephant seal to visit Tasmania in years, and online some people have cast him as an anti-authoritarian hero. Sophia Volzke, an elephant seal scientist at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, sees something plainer. Young males have to rehearse for the fights adults have over breeding, rearing up and crashing chests together. Neil has no other juveniles around. “With no other juveniles to practice with, Neil can only rehearse on cars,” she said.
A warning from officials
Fame has brought trouble. Kris Carlyon, of Tasmania’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, told a news conference on July 2 that “Neil’s fame is a bit of a double-edged sword.”
Carlyon described people carrying small babies up close to the seal to get a photo for Instagram. “We have had some pretty silly behaviour,” she said.
Officials have asked the public not to say which town Neil is in. They fear a serious encounter with a fan could force rangers into a risky operation to relocate him. Carlyon pointed to Freya, a walrus that drew huge crowds in Norway in 2023 and was put down after officials cited a growing threat to public safety. “There is a risk here of essentially loving Neil to death,” she said.
Rangers, police officers and security guards often trail behind him.
The stretch of pavement he likes
Lately Neil has claimed a puddle ringed by bollards. Sometimes he nestles against an orange traffic cone, to the delight of his followers, and he keeps returning even after rangers move him on. “He’s obviously decided this puddle surrounded by bollards, which are horizontal at the moment, is his spot,” Carlyon said.
Locals are divided. Dale Creamer, who lives in the town Neil is currently disrupting and has not been affected personally, called him “one of our biggest exports at the moment.” He added: “It’s Neil’s world and we’re just living in it.”
If Neil survives to maturity he could reach 5 metres (16 feet) and triple his weight. Volzke said about 90% of male elephant seals die before reaching breeding age, at around 10.
Sources
- Warning issued over viral 2,200lb seal after 'small babies posed for Insta snap'
- Australian officials tell fans to give Neil the seal some flipping space
