Watch: Huge elephant seal pays surprise visit to residents
Residents of Gordon's Bay woke up on Tuesday (27 May) to find an unusual visitor waddling around their town, located nearly a kilometer away from the shoreline.
In the clip, the creature can be seen on the grass outside a property, with emergency service workers nearby.
A rescue operation was soon launched and the two tonne marine mammal was returned to the sea by the afternoon.
The Cape of Good Hope Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) described the operation on Facebook as a 'delicate, hours-long rescue involving multiple agencies, a concerned community, and a very big seal'.
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