UPDATE: Elephant Seal Relocated, Confirmed Pregnant

CHP Marin shared the above photo of The Marine Mammal Center working to get Tolay the elephant seal back out to the bay on Dec. 29, 2015.

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UPDATE 8:30 P.M.:

After several failed attempts to redirect a pregnant elephant seal away from state Highway 37, wildlife officials have sedated the animal and loaded it onto a truck bound for an established elephant seal colony at Chimney Rock on the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Veterinarians confirmed that the seal is healthy and in good condition. Using a blood test and an ultrasound they also confirmed that she’s pregnant, according to the Marine Mammal Center.

Center officials spent much of Tuesday attempting to nudge the adult female seal away from Tolay Creek back toward San Pablo Bay and the open ocean beyond using a kayak and noisemakers, but the animal resisted their efforts.

It was quite an undertaking, however. The area around the creek is muddy and the seal, which wildlife officials described as healthy and in good condition, weighs in at an estimated 900 pounds.

Barbie Halaska, a research assistant with the Marin County-based Marine Mammal Center, said it was unclear why the seal was trying to cross the road - but that such behavior could be driven by the animal’s pregnancy.

Elephant seals tend to give birth this time of year, in December or January, according to Marine Mammal Center Officials.

ORIGINAL STORY AS FOLLOWS:

SONOMA COUNTY, CA- For the second day in a row, a giant elephant seal is trying to cross a busy Bay Area highway. And for the second day in a row, she’s very determined.

The 900-pound seal– now nicknamed Tolay– first showed up Monday around 1:15 p.m. on Highway 37 near Sears Point and state Highway 121 in Sonoma County, according to CHP Officer Andrew Barclay.

After an eventful day of being ushered back to the San Pablo Bay, and then returning to the roadway, and then being ushered back again... Tolay decided she still wasn’t giving up.

By nightfall Monday, the seal was back in the water, but refused to leave the area, according to Barclay.

“She never left,” Barclay told Patch by telephone just before noon Tuesday. “They’re attempting to herd it back into the water now.”

Barclay says the animal is causing quite the traffic disaster in the area-- not because she’s in the roadway (she’s to the side now), but because drivers keep slowing to take photos and cell phone videos.

“All they’re doing is creating a traffic nightmare,” the CHP officer said. ”Keep going, just drive right by.”

As to why Tolay keeps trying to cross the road? That’s the million dollar question.

“She’s a beautiful animal who appears to be in perfect health,” Barbie Halaska, a research assistant at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito told the San Francisco Chronicle. “She’s been pretty vocal so she might be a little frustrated but otherwise she seems to be doing fine.”

One possibility for the crossing attempts is that she is pregnant and trying to find a place to give birth, but Halaska said there is no way to confirm that short of an ultrasound.

“I think she’s just gotten a little bit disoriented,” Halaska said. “We’re not quite sure why she’s up here, she should be outside on the ocean side in the Point Reyes or Ano Nuevo areas.”

Halaska planned to get in the water in a kayak Tuesday morning and attempt to drive the seal out of the inlet she is in and back toward the larger Bay and the Golden Gate.

Patch will continue to follow this story and provide updates as they become available.