Did you, by any chance, lose a USB memory stick while kayaking sometime before November 2017, near Oreti Beach in Invercargill, a city on the southern tip of New Zealand’s southern island? If you did, the memory stick has been found and it is still functioning. There are some nice photos and video footage of sea lions and a kayak. The finders are willing to return the stick to you in exchange for some leopard seal poop. And no, I am not making this up.
Several weeks ago, researchers in New Zealand were analyzing a pile of leopard seal poop. (Note to self, be very grateful that I don’t have that job.) Buried in the poop was a USB memory stick.
“It is very worrying that these amazing Antarctic animals have plastic like this inside them,” said Jodie Warren, a volunteer with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), who found the USB stick.
NIWA’s “network of volunteer seal-scat collectors up and down the country” — gathered the poop in November 2017. It was then frozen for roughly a year until it could be examined.
Notwithstanding valid concerns about the appropriateness of memory sticks as part of a leopard seals’ diet, the memory stick appeared to be intact. The researchers let the stick dry out and then checked it and found that it contained photos and video of a blue kayak and swimming sea lions. A partial image of feet wearing red-tipped rubber shoes was the only other clue to the owners of the USB stick.
In hopes of finding the original owner, the NIWA researchers posted about their discovery on social media. “If they’re yours and you want the USB stick back, it comes with a price,” the group stated. “The leopard seal researchers would like some more leopard seal scat please.”
(The final condition sounds like a deal-breaker to me.)
So far, no one has come forward to claim the memory stick. Which is not to say that there has not been a reaction. There have been many requests to identify the manufacturer of the memory stick.
One Twitter user tweeted: “Hold on. It was eaten by a seal, run through its digestive system, pooped out, collected, FROZEN FOR OVER A YEAR, thoroughly washed, AND IT STILL WORKS? That’s some quality goods right there.”
So, if you lost a memory stick ….. click below:
They were defrosting leopard seal poo…you won’t believe what happened next!
No big deal, nothing but digested sealife.
They want the poop to test the anmal’s diet and health.
If you ever want or need to be checked for worms, doctors need yours too!
I genuinely hope the owner is still alive, leopard seals are pretty brutal.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/leopard-seal-kills-scientist-in-antarctica/
Did they check the poop for traces of human, kayak and camera?
who’s the manufacturer? bet their marketing group would jump on that promotion hahaha
I have doubts the memory stick was eaten and passed through the seal, stomach acid is pretty strong stuff.
Our dalmation dog (not renowned for their intelligence) chewed up and ate a whole child’s toy, a red London double-decker bus. His poop was flecked with bright red plastic for a few days. Plastic not affected by gastric juices.
It is not often you can measure a dog poop in London buses.