The incredible story behind the owner of the USB memory found in a seal poop

The mystery of USB memory found in a frozen sample of seal poop in New Zealand was unveiled. But the story of the owner of this device is really amazing.

Last week, the world was surprised when the novel USB began to become viral. It was such a ruckus that the news generated that researchers at the New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) run a seal program to study the species. One of the best ways to do this was to observe their excrement, since through this intermediary you can know what they are eating, where they are going and other data about their health. The truth is that to obtain it, volunteers must collect the samples and send them to the Institute.

A sample of this type, found at Oreti Beach, Invercargill, was collected a year ago and frozen to preserve it. Sample badysis takes time, and last week NIWA revealed in a publication that when they thawed this sample, an unexpected element appeared: a USB key.

Incredibly, when it was cleaned up, the USB device worked and revealed some kayak images of some seals frolicking in Porpoise Bay on the South Island. NIWA tweeted the images, eager to find the owner, and the unexpected discovery became international. Now, the owner of the USB is presented after watching his recordings on television and revealed an incredible story.

Amanda Nally, a New Zealand Sea Lion Trust volunteer, was surprised to recognize her own images on television, since she had not even realized that she had lost the USB drive , always making backup copies of his photos and videos. Incredibly, it turns out that she is the volunteer who found the sample and sent it to NIWA, without realizing that her USB key was there.

NIWA is looking for the owner of a USB stick found in the poop of a leopard seal …
Recognize this video? Scientists who badyze the seals of leopards have discovered an unexpected discovery: a USB flash drive full of photos and still in working order! https://t.co/2SZVkm5az4 pic.twitter.com/JLEC8vuHH0

– NIWA (@niwa_nz) February 5, 2019

A year ago, just days after kayaking, she noticed that there was something nearby and suggested sending her to NIWA for her program. Later, when it turned out that this same sample had a USB key, Nally thought that he might have left it on the beach that day , but NIWA researchers have an increasingly strange theory. "The way the USB device was inserted into the sample case remains a dilemma: the scientists who thawed the sample are convinced that it was" too tangled to have been abandoned ", said Nally.

"He was surrounded by feathers and small bones of birds, so they thought that he could have been accidentally released and then caught by a sea bird, which in turn was eaten by a seal, that I found out later, "he said. She is very aware that this strange string of coincidences sounds stranger than fiction, but then, as she told the researchers, "life sometimes surprises you".