Like many local boys before him, Neil has come home to the Australian coastal area where he was born. Unlike most of them, he follows fame, fans and property damage behind him. He is also a 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) elephant seal.
In June, the loud and boisterous 5-year-old mammal was pulled ashore for its twice-yearly tour of beach towns in the southern state of Tasmania after months of feeding at sea. This is causing problems now that he weighs the same as a small car and has a social network following more than twice the human population of Tasmania.
His rampage through local infrastructure has claimed bent traffic poles, a sign warning the public about seals and a fence that didn’t survive Neil’s attempt to capture him. The rest of the time he lies quietly wherever he likes, which is sometimes the middle of the road, making the towns he visits stop.
In this photo provided by Sam Volker Photography, Neil the Seal, a 1,000 kg (2,200 pound) elephant seal, moves through a public area in Tasmania, Australia, June 27, 2026.
(Photo by Sam Volker via AP)
But officials say their biggest concern is that Neil’s popularity could lead to ill-advised encounters with the human seal that are dangerous for both sides.
Neil is a bad boy with a long rap sheet
Neil, the only male elephant seal to visit Tasmania in years, has commanded a raving TikTok following of 1.4 million in part because he acts like such a jerk. During this visit to the coast, his 12th, his crimes have included fights with parked cars and breaking barriers erected to keep him off the road.
These antics have prompted some online to hail Neil as some kind of anti-authoritarian hero. But experts say it’s a normal experiment for a growing seal.
In this photo provided by Sam Volker Photography, Neil the Seal, a 1,000 kg (2,200 pound) elephant seal, looks over a pole that has damaged him in Tasmania, Australia, June 27, 2026.
(Photo by Sam Volker via AP)
Juvenile male elephant seals must be practiced for dominance battles in which the adults rear up and bang their chests together as they compete for breeding opportunities, said Sophia Volzke, an elephant seal scientist based at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.
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With no other minors to train, Neil can only test in the Toyota.
Officials are pleading with fans to leave Neil alone
Local officials fear Neil is the latest wild animal whose social media stardom has outgrown what’s good for him.
“Neil’s fame is a bit of a double-edged sword,” Kris Carlyon of Tasmania’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment told a news conference in Hobart on Thursday, in which he asked seal fans to give him privacy.
“We’ve had some pretty silly behaviour, cases of people holding their little babies next to him and just trying to get that picture for Instagram,” he said.
Officials have asked the public to refrain from identifying the city Neil is currently entertaining or terrorizing, depending on who you talk to. They fear a disastrous encounter between the seal and an admirer could force rangers into a dangerous operation to relocate it elsewhere.
Carlyon also warned of worse. In one episode from 2023, a sea urchin known as Freya that drew huge crowds in Norway was euthanized after officials cited a growing risk to human safety.
“There’s a danger here that you basically love Neil to death,” Carlyon said.
Neil’s problems will become bigger than him
It is customary for seals to return twice a year to their birthplace to rest, fast and shed fur. Many species wander inland during visits to the coast, sometimes taking them to beachside towns.
What is unusual about Neil is that he is the only male elephant seal to be washed ashore in Tasmania.
The sub-Antarctic islands south of Tasmania are home to breeding populations of elephant seals, and Neil’s mother would have come from one of them to give birth, Volzke said. Females have been seen ashore in Tasmania before, but reaching the size Neil did when he was one or two years old, they don’t cause the same kind of chaos, she added.
“People got rid of those animals and now maybe they’re coming back and repopulating the areas where they were seen before,” she said. “We have to find a way to coexist.”
This can be tricky for Neil, and for the guards, police officers and security guards who follow him. If he survives to adulthood, Neil could be up to 5 meters (16 feet) long and weigh three times what he does now.
However, about 90 percent of male elephant seals die before reaching reproductive age of about 10 years, Volzke said.
For now, Neil the seal is occupying a section of the sidewalk, motionless and unconcerned. Sometimes he dances with an orange traffic cone, to the delight of his online followers. It is not clear why he prefers that location, to which he has returned even after leaving the guards.
In this photo provided by Sam Volker Photography, Neil the Seal, a 1,000 kg (2,200 pound) elephant seal, prepares to bite a traffic cone in Tasmania, Australia, June 27, 2026.
(Photo by Sam Volker via AP)
“He’s definitely decided that this pond surrounded by poles, which are horizontal at the moment, is his place,” Carlyon said Thursday.
His fans can relate. The natives have mixed feelings.
“He’s one of our biggest exports right now,” said Dale Creamer, a resident of the town where the seal is currently being dumped, who is not personally concerned. “It’s Neil’s world and we’re just living in it.”
&copies 2026 The Canadian Press
