The government shutdown had an unexpected impact when an animal invasion came by sea to a California beach.
Elephant seals have completely taken over Drakes Beach, according to The Washington Post.
Park officials typically keep the seals at bay by annoying them with blue tarps, the newspaper reported.
However, during the partial government shutdown, the non-essential tarp-waving park rangers weren’t at work to annoy the seals away, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
"Sometimes you go out with tarps and you shake the tarps and it annoys them and they move the other direction," Chief of Interpretation and Resource Education John Dell’Osso told the publication. "It doesn't scare them, and it's a standard technique used with elephant seals. This would have kept them farther away from tourists.”
The seals have been running, or in their case, bouncing, rampant in the park. They’ve knocked down a fence and have even staked their claim in the parking lot, the Chronicle reports.
According to the newspaper, the seal invasion forced park officials to close the beach and its access road.
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