Now that’s a lot cuter than an Amazon package.
A family in the New Zealand city of Wellington arrived at their home earlier this week to find a fuzzy fur seal pup asleep outside their door, according to a Tuesday Facebook post from the country’s Department of Conservation.
“It’s not every day you come home to find a seal curled up on your front porch, but during ✨seal silly season✨ you never know where these adventurous animals might pop up!” the department wrote.
The young animal had apparently “been on a bit of a mission,” since the journey to get to the napping spot from the beach had to have involved “climbing up the seawall stairs, crossing a road, hiking up a footpath, a driveway, and finally another set of stairs.”
The New Zealand fur seal, also know as the kekeno, can be found all along the country’s coastline as well as on nearby islands. The marine mammals were hunted nearly to extinction in previous centuries, but they’ve made a triumphant comeback, with numbers exceeding 200,000 seals, The Guardian reported last year.
Responding to a question from a commenter asking where the seal’s mother is, the department said the seal had likely weaned already and that “this time of year seals can end up in lots of strange places as they leave mum to go explore the world.”
The department noted that in New Zealand, it’s common for people to see young seals “out and about” between May and September and that people should not bother them or interfere with them. If a seal is “in noticeably poor condition, tangled in fishing line, in danger from cars, dogs or humans, or on your property,” the agency urges New Zealanders to call its hotline for help.
In this case, the department decided that the seal should be moved “further around the coast to a safe place” away from traffic and dogs.