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Tasmanian official warns public they risk ‘loving Neil the seal to death’
The Guardian
|July 03, 2026
Wildlife officials in Tasmania have warned people to give Neil the seal space during his visit to the Australian state, or risk “loving him to death”.
Neil, a southern elephant seal, was born in Tasmania in October 2020, but his existence is an anomaly: most of his kind live thousands of miles south on the subantarctic Macquarie and Heard islands.
Elephant seals return several times a year to the area where they were born to moult, breed - or in Neil’s case, rest and learn how to play fight.
This story is from the July 03, 2026 edition of The Guardian.
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