A National Parks and Wildlife Service marine mammal expert has praised the actions of two South Australian farmers who rescued a lost seal pup from a wheat crop and returned it to the sea.
The farmers have become a media sensation, but attracted some negative comments on social media about their handling of the situation.
National Parks marine coordinator Dirk Holman said the long-nosed fur seal, which was found about three kilometres from the ocean on the Eyre Peninsula, would most likely have perished had it not been discovered.
"The chances of survival are pretty low," Mr Holman said.
'Very resilient'
Mr Holman said if members of the public found a marine mammal in distress they should contact National Parks, but in this case the farmers acted appropriately.
"They know how to assess animal health, so if there was any group of people that you wanted handling that animal it would have been a farmer," he said.
"They've done the right thing in picking it up and taking it back and putting it in the water and giving it its best chance of survival."
Mr Holman said the pup was about six months old and would have been weaned.
"The condition didn't look great, but these animals are all very resilient," he said.
"You see them with shark bites at times and you think, because it looks so severe, they couldn't possibly survive — but then you''ll see that that animal has disappeared and gone out to sea a couple of days later.
'A little unusual'
The pup was most likely from a colony south of Port Lincoln, about 300km away.
"These animals are particularly mobile," Mr Holman said.
"They've got a large range and they can spend a lot of time at sea and they utilise the gulfs as foraging areas.
"Being 3km inland is a little unusual, but an animal by itself is not unusual."
He said the seal might have got disorientated.
"By the look of the crop, it's quite high, so it might may not have been able to find its way back to the beach," Mr Holman said.
