Neil always comes back home. This seal born in Tasmania, an island state of Australia, is a 5-year-old mammal, quite chubby (weighing a ton), who crawls through the streets of the southern island cities every year after spending months feeding in the sea. His success on social media is impressive: he has over 1.5 million followers on TikTok, has his own Wikipedia page, and even triples the population of the state he visits in followers (around 500,000 inhabitants).
Neil's great peculiarity is his behavior. While strolling peacefully through the streets, he acts as an anti-system: destroying traffic signs and cones, and even lunging at cars. When he's not active, he lies down to rest wherever he pleases, whether in the middle of the road or on the beach, always accompanied by his characteristic bellow (the sound seals make).
Now, authorities are concerned about Neil's growth. Every year he returns, he is bigger and heavier (currently reaching the weight of a car), so they fear that his viral phenomenon may encourage his followers to get too close and lead to some dangerous encounters.
"Neil's fame is a double-edged sword," stated Kris Carlyon from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tasmania at a press conference in Hobart, where he urged the population to respect the animal and give him space. "We have seen cases of people bringing their small babies very close to him, just trying to get the perfect Instagram photo, these are quite absurd behaviors," he lamented.
Despite the striking nature of his actions, his behavior is completely normal. Experts clarify that young males need to fight each other to prepare for adulthood. Being the only elephant seal of his species in Tasmania, Neil has no playmates, so he uses cars or traffic signs as training rivals and turns them into his personal "gym."
If he manages to reach maturity, something only achieved by 10% of males, he could reach five meters in length and triple his current weight, making him a much more unpredictable and dangerous animal due to his enormous size.
Each video posted on social media surpasses the previous one. Always doing as he pleases, the posts on his account consistently reach over 100,000 views, with some accumulating millions of views. "This is Neil's world, and we are just lucky to live in it," jokes a follower in the comments.
It is clear that if it were up to the residents, they would appoint Neil as the mayor of any of the towns he visits. "Neil is the owner of that land, they should give him the keys to the city," they comment on social media. While authorities debate how to manage his enormous fame and colossal size, Neil continues with his antics: he will destroy more signs, keep bellowing, and, above all, annoy traffic by sunbathing in the middle of the highway.