Wayward fur seal pup rescued far from water in Fremont

A northern fur seal pup was rescued Thursday after it apparently lost its way, tried to cross a street in Fremont and eventually waddled into the front yard of a home, authorities said. A northern fur seal pup was rescued Thursday after it apparently lost its way, tried to cross a street in Fremont and eventually waddled into the front yard of a home, authorities said. Photo: Fremont Police Department Photo: Fremont Police Department Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Wayward fur seal pup rescued far from water in Fremont 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

A northern fur seal pup was rescued Thursday after it apparently lost its way, tried to cross a street in Fremont and eventually waddled into the front yard of a home, authorities said.

Around 8 a.m., police received reports of the 9-month-old female pup trying to cross the street on the 42800 block of Osgood Road, said Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police spokeswoman. It was unclear whether the animal was able to get across the road, but when officers arrived they found it concealed behind a tree in the front yard of a residence.

Animal service officers were able to gently wrap the seal, nicknamed “Ozzie” after the street where she was found, in a towel and took her to the Tri-City Animal Shelter, where she was picked up by staff from the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Bosques said.

It was unclear how the off-course pinniped wound up so far from open water, though Bosques said she may have made her way up from the bay through one of a number of drainage ditches in the area.

Lost Northern Fur Seal Found in Fremont A Northern Fur Seal was located earlier this morning today on Osgood Rd (between Auto Mall Pkwy and Washington Blvd) in Fremont. The seal was found in the front yard of a residence. The seal has no visible injuries. Two Fremont Patrol Officers and an Animal Service Officer responded. ASO Stephanie Saunders was able to gently wrap the youngster in a towel and transport it to the Tri-City Animal Shelter. The California Marine Mammal Center is responding to pick it up. The seal is tagged and we will likely get more information about this little pup when they arrive. We have nick named it Ozzie! City of Fremont, CA Government Posted by Fremont Police Department on Thursday, 24 March 2016

“Ozzie” was previously named Kumofur when she was fitted with a tag by the folks at the Marin Mammal Center after she was rescued in November from a beach in Capitola (Santa Cruz County), said Laura Sherr, a spokeswoman for the Center. The pup was released into Bodega Bay earlier this month.

The pup’s venture into the East Bay was not the first pinniped to wander its way onto land in the Bay Area in recent months.

In January, an emaciated northern fur seal turned up at the front door of a Hayward ironworks shop after likely navigating up Alameda Creek and inadvertently ending up in a narrow canal that runs between the BART tracks and Industrial Boulevard in Hayward.

In December, a 900-pound pregnant elephant seal captured the attention of Bay Area animal lovers after she refused to leave an inlet off San Pablo Bay in Sonoma County. She was eventually tranquilized and taken to a beach near Chimney Rock in Point Reyes, where she gave birth to a healthy pup.

The Marine Mammal Center saw a record number of stranded and distressed marine mammal rescues — more than 1,800 — in 2015, mostly due to malnutrition and a bloom of toxic algae caused by unusually warm waters off the California coast.

“The record numbers of stranded marine mammals we’ve seen in recent years indicates there is an urgent need for more science to help us all better understand how large-scale human impacts, such as climate change, overfishing and pollution, may be affecting the health of these animals and their ocean environment,” officials from the center said in a statement.

The fur seal pup is to be examined at the mammal center on Friday morning, Sherr said, where veterinarians will check her general health and see whether she had lost weight since her first visit.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale