A southerly elephant seal , a marine mammalian normally found in the icy waters of Antarctica , has been spotted along the balmy coastline of Sri Lanka for the first clip .
While the unexpected visitor has been welcome in Sri Lanka , its front in tropic waters may be a cause for concern .
The juvenile southern elephant seal was spotted on November 20 on Dalawella Beach near Unawatuna on Sri Lanka ’s south coast , reportsMongabay . Locals and rangers from Sri Lanka ’s Department of Wildlife Conservation managed to capture some footage of the remote traveller after receiving a tip - off from the Sri Lankan Navy .
Asha de Vos , PhD , a marine biologist who specialize in studying blue hulk in Sri Lanka , was keeping yellow journalism on the elephant cachet and tweeting updates on its condition . On November 23,she notedthe soul was still in Sri Lanka and appear to be “ resting but also injured . ” Unfortunately , the seal has not been spotted since Saturday and its whereabouts are now unknown .
Thesouthern elephant sealis the globe ’s largest species of cachet , with males develop up to 4 meters ( 13 foot ) . They are also screw to plunk to uttermost depths , up to 2,100 meters ( 6,890 fundament ) , which is fairly impressive for a marine mammalian . They get their name from their outstandingly big nose and their Brobdingnagian physical structure size of it . It ’s unknown if this seal is a male or distaff as its size suggests its a juvenile person , and males do n’t develop their trunk - same nose until reach out sexual adulthood , and female do n’t have them .
They can be found in three geographic subpopulations in sub - south-polar and Antarctic waters . The large subpopulation is in the South Atlantic , while the other two reside in the sub - Antarctic island of the Pacific Ocean and in the southerly stretches of the Indian Ocean .
One of the nearest populations of elephant seals to Sri Lanka can be determine on Kerguelen Island . Although that ’s over 6,200 kilometers ( 3,890 mile ) aside , it ’s potential for an elephant sealing wax to make this journey with the help of ocean stream . Why it made this journey , however , remains a enigma .
“ sealing wax are active swimmers , but it ’s grueling to speculate why this individual swam this far Frederick North , leaving its aboriginal range . The individual found in Sri Lanka expect exhausted and would have reached the beach for some residual , ” de Vos , toldMongabay .
Although it ’s the first metre the species has been documented in Sri Lanka , they have been known to err into the Northern Hemisphere . A study in the journalMarine Mammal Scienceexplains that fishers shot dead a southern elephant seal of approval off the seacoast of Oman on the Arabian Peninsula . The reputation also summon previous sightings in Mauritius and the Seychelle Islands .
Elephant seals are not considered threatened as their numbers are good for you , but environmentalist are keeping an eye on the increase want of water ice habitat on which they breed for any succeeding threats .
