OT - You saw WHAT in Ft. Lauderdale???

[ricki]

A Bearded ARCTIC Seal?!

Yes, this seal may be doing a grand tour of SE Florida, turned up on a lawn in Tarpoon River (upscale area, has good taste).


What do the seals do for mangos in the Arctic?


A bearded seal at home on the ice. Here I thought winter was about done here.



http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...home-headlines
Elusive arctic seal turns up ... on bank of Tarpon River in Fort Lauderdale


By David Fleshler of Sun-Sentinel.com
and Gabriel Margasak of TCPalm.com

May 7, 2007, 1:20 PM EDT


FORT LAUDERDALE -- A dehydrated and emaciated bearded Arctic seal that has eluded rescue efforts along the Treasure Coast turned up Monday in a resident's backyard on a bank of the Tarpon River, wildlife officials said.

"Right now we have the seal behind a resident's house, pretty much laying on the lawn grass facing the canal. At the moment he's sleeping," said Christine Hudak, a manatee biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "It looks like it is possibly the same seal" that evaded capture last week in the Indian River Lagoon.

The seal was discovered on a bank of the picturesque Tarpon River where it crosses Andrews Avenue at Davie Boulevard not far from the city's downtown.

State and federal wildlife officials are waiting on equipment to arrive to capture the animal.

Plans are to capture the seal, take it to SeaWorld in Orlando for treatment and feeding, then release it thousands of miles away in its native Arctic.

Balir Mase, marine mammal stranding co-ordinator for the National Fisheries Service, described the seal as dehydrated and slightly emaciated.

Hudak was among a rescue team of scientists, biologists and veterinarians who tried to rescue the seal after it was found last week in the Indian River Lagoon and Intracoastal Waterway. Wildlife experts were still trying to figure out how an animal from the ice of Greenland and Canada ended up in South Florida.

Having seen the seal Friday at a Hobe Sound marina, and then again on Monday, Hudak said she was about 90 percent sure it was the same seal.

She said experts from SeaWorld in Orlando and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution were headed to the area to attempt another rescue.

"We're hoping to sneak up behind it capture it, put it in a (dog) kennel and take it to SeaWorld," she said.