An elephant seal lies in the shallows of the Kakanui River on Monday, about 200m up the walking track north of the bridge at Kakanui township. Photo: Travis MeyerA ''grumpy bog monster'' has been startling some visitors to the Kakanui area since last week. The male elephant seal was moulting and was likely to hang around the area for a couple of weeks, Department of Conservation (Doc) biodiversity manager Jim Fyfe said. Some of the photos that we've seen he looks a bit of a grumpy bog monster. Travis Meyer, of Timaru, came across the elephant seal while fishing and sent Doc photos of it, concerned the animal might be unwell - ''not dead, because it was still blinking, but it had seagulls on it''.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 09, 2018 16:07 UTC