Giant Seal Tries to Cross Highway And Causes Major Traffic Jam

(California Highway Patrol via AP)SAN FRANCISCO: Wildlife experts and law enforcement officials on Monday worked to keep a determined elephant seal off a Northern California highway that it has repeatedly tried to cross, snarling traffic in the area.

The crisis began to unfold at 1 p.m. Monday when the California Highway Patrol got calls about the seal blocking the road, and they couldn’t figure out why the animal got there.

The CHP says it might shut down the two-lane highway if the seal tries to charge across again.

But she was not so easily dissuaded from her adventure, and the seal made it back to land twice.

Crews from the Marin County-based Marine Mammal Center have also responded to assist, he said.

“Tipping was never, didn’t seem to be a problem because the mud was so close there, but she got a little close to my legs a couple times.” said Barbie Halaska of Marine Mammal Center.

One possibility for the crossing attempts is that she is pregnant and trying to find a place to give birth, but Halaska said there is no way to confirm that short of an ultrasound.

Locals are saying she is still hanging around the bay today. The area around the creek is muddy and the seal, which wildlife officials described as healthy and in good condition, weighs in at an estimated 900 pounds. “So she was moving us pretty easily, a lot of force”.

A seal slowed traffic on Highway 37 near Sears Point in California on Monday, December 29, 2015.

Drivers then stopped and tried unsuccessfully to shoo her back toward the water. CHP said the seal was consistently trying to get back on the roadway. The angry elephant seal took a gash out of the wooden board Barclay was holding.

But elephant seals have no land predictors, making them very docile.