Watch: Rescuers searching for sea lion that repeatedly wandered onto highway [Video]

Jan. 7 (UPI) — Marine rescuers on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island are attempting to locate a wayward sea lion that has repeatedly wandered onto a busy highway far from its normal habitat.

The male sea lion was first spotted on Highway 4, between Port Alberni and Ucluelet, on Dec. 4, and researchers theorized it must have followed the Kennedy River from the ocean to nearby Kennedy Lake.

The sea lion was given a police escort back to the lake, but has made multiple repeat visits to the highway.

“It’s really dangerous,” Paul Cottrell with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada told CTV News. “You can imagine a 300-pound dark animal on a highway. And the animal has been coming out of the water at nighttime on Friday and Saturday.”

The sea lion was last seen in the area on Saturday, and a Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society team attempted unsuccessfully to locate and sedate the animal on Sunday.

Martin …