SEAL OF APPROVAL

Elephant Seals Took Over California Beach During Shutdown

For now, the park has decided to let them stay.

The temporary end to the government shutdown may have put federal workers back on the payrolls and calmed political turmoil—but it didn’t fix everything, The San Francisco Chronicle reports Wednesday. A colony of approximately 1,500 elephant seals who normally remain in one section of Drakes Beach in California thanks to park workers moved into territory that’s frequented by humans while those workers were furloughed—and they don’t appear to be moving back any time soon. The seals reportedly knocked over a fence, migrated into a parking lot, and took over the beach—even after the park re-opened on Sunday. As a result, workers were forced to close the road to the beach. Officials are now considering keeping the road closed, and offering tours of the seal-strewn beach to the public.