Lost elephant seal found making its way down a street in South Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A large elephant seal took a wrong turn and was seen lumbering along a street in a coastal town in

South Africa

early Tuesday, surprising residents and inspiring a rescue effort to get him back to sea.

The two-ton seal

, which an animal welfare group said was a young male, was making his way through a suburb of Gordon’s Bay near Cape Town.

Locals came out of houses and recorded videos.

“This is unreal. Hi, bro, how did you get here?” one woman asked.

Police and a local security company attempted to contain the seal by parking patrol cars around him. He rested his huge head on the hood of one car and half-climbed over another before slipping free, crossing a road and carrying on up a sidewalk.

The seal eventually stopped next to a shopping mall. Animal welfare officials worried he was too far from the ocean to find his way back and might become exhausted and dehydrated. They estimated he weighed around two tons (4,400 pounds). Elephant seals can grow to twice that size.

A team of marine

wildlife specialists

and a city veterinarian sedated the seal and guided him into an animal transport trailer to be returned to his natural habitat at a nearby bay.

The local Cape of Good Hope SPCA later posted a video on social media of the seal making his way down a beach and toward the ocean.

“Sea you later,” the video said.

In a surprising wildlife encounter, a massive elephant seal was seen wandering through the streets of Gordon’s Bay on Tuesday morning, almost a kilometre away from the shoreline, leaving residents stunned and social media buzzing.