KEY POINTS:
A young fur seal journeyed through several Auckland streams, a reserve, a primary school and some suburban streets before taking refuge from excited onlookers under a van.
Police cordoned off Karepo Cres in Ranui, which the Department of Conservation said was just as well because the seal could have killed a child or a dog with its bite.
Seals also carry diseases such as tuberculosis and salmonella which are communicable to humans.
DoC ranger Karl McCleod said the 3-year-old male New Zealand fur seal must have come from the Hauraki Gulf and swum up through Swanson Stream and several smaller streams, reaching Te Rangi Hiroa Park.
Neighbours phoned police and animal control. When DoC arrived a crowd of about 60 people had gathered.
The seal made a dash from the van but was caught by Mr McCleod in a net. "It was very aggressive," he said. "It was probably pretty freaked out, a bit disoriented.
"It was sheltering, hiding, surrounded by people and activity."
It took two men to lift the 60kg seal into the back of a DoC truck. Mr McCleod released the seal back in the Hauraki Gulf.
Van owner Tewehenga Drader said he had stopped to show his children the seal on the side of the road when it ran under the van.
Senior Constable Dean Furminder used a garden hose to cool it.
"The Department of Conservation said it's not really necessary," he told TV3, "but it was pretty warm out there on the seal, on the tarseal, I mean."
