Neil the seal swims out to sea, leaving joy in his wake

Neil the seal has headed out to sea.

The 1,000-kilogram marine mammal has spent the past few weeks at Seven Mile Beach, near Hobart, in southern Tasmania.

His bollard-bashing, fence-crushing, traffic cone-chewing antics have turned him into an internet sensation.

"Neil the seal is a global treasure," one fan posted on Instagram.

"The highlight of my day is seeing Neil content — it's what I live for," another devotee declared.

"Neil is an absolute menace and I love him,"

someone else stated.

But the phenomenon of Neil the seal almost never happened.

In October 2020, wildlife experts were alerted to the birth of a baby elephant seal on the Tasman Peninsula.

The 40-kilo pup was found lying on a tidal sandbar.

Kris Carlyon, from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE), has no doubt what would've happened had his team not immediately moved Neil to a safer spot.

"He was certainly going to drown on that day," Dr Carlyon said.

"And we've looked after and managed him ever since."

Elephant seals usually gather in herds on the sub-Antarctic islands of the Southern Ocean.

But because seals are pre-programmed to return to the area they were born, Neil has been coming back to Hobart's coastal region twice a year since his birth.

Each time, he turns up bigger and bolder.

And much like his girth, his admirers continue to grow exponentially.

"He has an amazing following on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook," University of Tasmania media lecturer Gemma Blackwood said.

"People can't get enough of Neil the seal."

She attributes much of his online popularity to his personality.

"People are really enjoying the fact that he seems to be a bit of a rule-breaker — you might call him a folk hero,"

Dr Blackwood said.

"[He] provides a lot of joy for people, and that's both locally, nationally and internationally."

Neil a 'larrikin' who brings positivity

The love for Neil hasn't been limited to the online world.

Over recent weeks, thousands of people, including some who've flown in from interstate, have ventured to his seaside stomping ground just to catch a glimpse of the celebrity seal.

"He's got a typical Aussie larrikin vibe to him," said Harrison Smith, who was among the many onlookers keeping the required 20-metre distance from Neil.

"He's just a one-tonne seal destroying fences, doing what he pleases.

"He's an icon."

Another onlooker, Mike Warren, told the ABC that Neil had brought people together.

"There's a lot of other stuff going on that's negative, and to have this bit of positivity, especially down here, is wonderful,"

he said.

"You can see the people coming down and they are all smiling and it's just really good to see — a bit of innocent fun."

Reason behind Neil's popularity

Deanna Tepper is a lecturer at La Trobe University who specialises in psychology and anthrozoology — the study of human-animal relationships.

She said one of the reasons people are so enamoured with Neil is because of a psychological concept known as "baby schema".

"It's this idea that we're drawn to creatures and animals that have big round faces and those cute big cheeks and wide eyes [like human infants],"

Dr Tepper said.

"When we see those photos and videos of Neil, we definitely see he's got that big, wide head and those huge eyes and [that] pudgy, plumpness that we love in human infants."

She said similar human reactions have occurred for other celebrity animals, including "Moo Deng" the pygmy hippo and "Pesto", the oversized king penguin.

Dr Tepper said people also tended to view Neil's cheeky behaviour through a human lens — a concept called anthropomorphism.

"We sort of look at his behaviour and we think he's being really cheeky and he's being mischievous and he's being a rebel and he's sort of deliberately destroying these things to make us laugh," she said.

"And of course, that isn't actually the case.

"He's just displaying the behaviour of a wild seal."

While his antics have mostly generated joy and laughter, some people have expressed concern about the fact he is a loner with no other seals to keep him company.

"Definitely, as humans, we are prone to looking at these sorts of animals and feeling bad for them and thinking that they must feel the same loneliness that perhaps we feel as well," Dr Tepper said.

"But again, he is a seal and we don't quite know if he's feeling sadness and loneliness the way that we would feel it."

Neil goes global

Neil's antics have captivated people around the world.

He's been featured on CNN and the New York Times, among many other international media outlets.

He's also inspired advertising campaigns, including a Tasmanian insurance company that has a commercial featuring a seal lying on top of a car.

And a marketing agency also recently used Neil's presence in southern Tasmania to promote Airbnbs in the area.

Plus, there's an endless supply of merchandise for sale online, including Neil the seal stickers, phone covers and clothing.

Politicians have also been trying to harness the popularity of the seal with humorous social media content.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has posted a short clip of himself sitting down for a TV interview and turning into a seal.

"Prepping for my Netflix documentary on Neil the seal," a headline on his video says.

Opposition Leader Josh Willie has added a heavy metal soundtrack to vision of Neil smashing a bollard.

"Neil the seal is a metalhead," the post says.

Keeping Neil safe

Despite the joy Neil has generated, Tasmanian wildlife experts expressed concern that there was a risk of the seal being "loved to death".

They noted instances in other countries where large wild animals in public places have been euthanased after being deemed a risk to public safety.

Those references prompted an online petition for better protections for Neil.

While local authorities have made it clear that such extreme action was not their preferred management approach, they reiterated the need for visitors to give Neil plenty of space.

They say this is particularly important as he could more than double in size over the coming years.

"So the more we allow Neil to behave like a seal, the better the outcome for Neil and the community,"

Dr Carlyon from NRE said.

During his recent stay in Tasmania, traffic wardens were engaged to ensure his safety.

A 24/7 security detail was also put in place.

They're likely to be called on again if and when Neil returns to area after several months feeding in the Southern Ocean.