Seal rescued after wandering into busy South African road

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Animal rescuers in South Africa were summoned to wrangle a seal that wandered into traffic and guide the animal back to the water.

The Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department said personnel responded Wednesday morning to a report of a cape fur seal attempting to cross Jakes Gerwel Drive, a busy road near the Vangate Mall in Athlone, a suburb of Cape Town.

SPCA Chief Inspector Jaco Pieterse and Inspector Lwazi Ntungele worked to wrangle the seal into a crate while Cape Town police directed traffic around them.

The rescuers drove the seal to the closest beach for release.

The SPCA said it was unclear how the seal came to be so far from shore.

"One theory is that it had swum into a canal and was washed further away by strong currents, or that it was intended to be an unusual Christmas gift for someone's mother-in-law and then merely dumped when its captor saw the price of fish," the SPCA said.