Motorists and pedestrians were stunned when the law-abiding marine beast waddled across the street. It had crawled out of the sea in a Brazilian beach resort moments earlier.
The half-tonne creature crawled out of the water in the beach resort of Balneario Camboriu in the southern state of Santa Catarina, then found its way onto the town’s main boulevard.
A massive elephant seal, estimated to weigh more than half a tonne, blocked a busy street in a Brazilian city after deciding to go for an impromptu stroll.
Traffic ground to a halt for 20 minutes as the three-metre long sea lion slid across the busy road.
The 9.8ft seal waddled out of the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday afternoon and headed up the beach straight for the busy Avenida Atlantica.
Curious pedestrians surrounded the 9-foot-long sea mammal and captured footage as it waddled from the beach down the resort town’s Atlantic Avenue.
It may have been the animal’s first foray onto a main road, but it did obey the law by using a zebra crossing to make its way across the street.
Firefighters and police, tossing water on the creature, helped the sea lion find its way back to the South Atlantic Ocean by 7 p.m.
Locals said the animal finally returned to the water after about an hour-and-a-half.
The mammal is likely a South American sea lion, typically found along the coasts and offshore islands of the continent.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, the South American sea lion is considered a species of least concern.
While sea lions are not known to regularly leave the beach, a record-breaking number of sea lion pups have washed ashore in California recently, overwhelming area rescue centers.
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