An unexpected visitor spotted sunbathing on a beach in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv is turning heads and causing a media buzz.

But itB次元官网网址檚 not American film director and Tel Aviv mainstay, Quentin Tarantino, or another Hollywood celebrity B次元官网网址� itB次元官网网址檚 Yulia, an endangered Mediterranean monk seal.

The seal cow first appeared south of Tel AvivB次元官网网址檚 main beachfront last Friday. On Tuesday, Yulia drew clusters of curious onlookers to the rocky beach south of JaffaB次元官网网址檚 historic center.

These seals are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with as few as 350 mature specimens estimated to exist in the wild. Its populations have dwindled due to historic seal hunting, fishing, and habitat destruction.

Rarely spotted on IsraelB次元官网网址檚 shores, the dwindling Mediterranean monk seal populations are believed to survive only in a handful of places in the Mediterranean Sea.

IsraelB次元官网网址檚 Nature and Park Authority has fenced off the section of beach where Yulia has come ashore to rest, and dispatched volunteers to monitor her from a distance.

Still, her appearance is a sensation.

B次元官网网址淭his is a very rare event that a monk seal stays for such a long time on the shore,B次元官网网址� said Aviad Scheinin, a marine biologist from University of Haifa.

Yulia is molting, a multi-day process of shedding her winter coat, he explained, during which time she has been resting on the shore and taken occasional excursions out to sea.

Scheinin said fellow researchers from around the eastern Mediterranean have identified Yulia as previously spotted in Turkey and Lebanon in recent years. She is estimated to be around 20 years old.

B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 researching marine mammals for 20 years; this is the first time that IB次元官网网址檓 actually seeing such a thing, and I can hardly sleep at night because of that,B次元官网网址� he said.

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