A wayward California sea lion who stopped visitors on the Pacific Rim Freeway east of Tofino, B.C., on Vancouver Island has discovered its approach again to security due to a particular police escort.
Ucluelet RCMP Const. Mark Macdonnell mentioned when he was despatched out Sunday morning to a report of a sea lion on the freeway almost 10 kilometres inland from the ocean, he was skeptical he would discover something.
“It was positively not one thing that I assumed was truly going to be there. I assumed I would drive down the street, see nothing, and switch round. However then I got here across the nook, and hastily, there’s this massive sea lion in the course of the street,” mentioned Macdonnell.
The male sea lion weighing an estimated 150 kilograms was first reported by an eagle-eyed driver throughout the darkish morning hours, in response to DFO marine mammal co-ordinator Paul Cottrell.
“They noticed what they thought was a bear initially. After which [they saw] it was a sea lion… And so they did the correct factor. They known as us straight away,” mentioned Cottrell. “This animal is certainly out of habitat on this actually odd space.”
Macdonnell mentioned he discovered the ocean lion in a very harmful location the place the freeway curves and has a steep embankment on one facet main all the way down to Kennedy Lake.
“I offered visitors management simply in order that autos coming across the nook might see that there was some sort of incident and would decelerate. Then I reached out to Parks Canada, and one among their wardens got here and assisted me,” he mentioned.
Over the subsequent 90 minutes, Macdonnell, the warden and two freeway upkeep staff gently herded the animal 500 metres down the street to a decrease part of freeway, the place it re-entered the lake and swam away.
“It was form of startled as a result of all these autos are driving by, and now persons are stopping. So it might need been confused as to what to do,” he mentioned. “In order it walked down the street, we might again up a automobile and block it from going again up the street.”
Cottrell believes the ocean lion possible climbed onto the freeway after swimming fairly an extended distance from the ocean up the Kennedy River, into Staghorn Creek and finally into Kennedy Lake.
“The animal is again within the lake secure proper now, and we’re hoping that it could discover its approach out and again into the ocean. At the least it is so much safer than being on the freeway,” mentioned Cottrell.
This is not the primary case of a pinniped turning up removed from its ordinary dwelling.
Seals have been noticed alongside Freeway 99 in Metro Vancouver, in response to Cottrel. And some years in the past, a really massive sea lion nicknamed “James Pond” needed to be tranquillized and moved from the Pender Harbour pond and yard it had taken up residence in.
“They perhaps observe fish up the river and simply maintain going after which get disoriented and notice, wow, I am in hassle right here. After which they attempt to discover their approach again,” mentioned Cottrell. “However [the Kennedy Lake] one … I might say is likely one of the most original by way of the space from the ocean, for positive.”
Anybody who spots an injured, stranded or distressed marine animal is inspired to report it to the B.C. Marine Animal Response Network 24-hour hotline at 1-800 465-4336.
“We will mobilize our knowledgeable groups rapidly and get the correct folks in place to make sure the protection of the animals,” mentioned Cottrell.
“If the motive force did not name [the sea lion] in, nearly definitely that animal possible would have been struck, which might have been a very dangerous scenario for the animal and, in fact, for the folks within the automobile.”
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