Richard Robinson

For a year, the coastline north of Kaikōura was home to a unique albino kekeno pup affectionately called Golden Boy. Department of Conservation scientists first spotted the ginger fur seal in February 2025 when he was a few months old, during colony monitoring at Ōhau Point.

With his honey-coloured coat, pink flippers and nose, and rheumy eyes squinting against the sun, he became headline news—all while dozing on the rocks between ocean and highway, waiting for his mother to return from fishing and feed him her nutritious milk.

Like many albinos, Golden Boy probably has limited vision, and marine biologist Jody Weir worried he wouldn’t survive the spring weaning. But he continued to look fat and healthy until November, when he disappeared.

That’s not necessarily the end of his story, says Weir. Every summer, yearling pups set off from the colony on their own to start their adult lives. (The females will usually be back to breed; the males are less likely to return.) Weir thinks Golden Boy left with them and is still out there—catching his own fish, using his sensitive whiskers to guide him through the cool southern waters, a bright flash in the dark.