Photos Found on USB Stick Found in Frozen Seal Poo

There have been plenty of stories of photos being found on lost cameras over the years, but here’s a wild lost-and-found story you definitely haven’t heard before. A USB drive has been reunited with its owner after it was found in a frozen slab of seal poo.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand announced earlier this week that while defrosting a frozen block of leopard seal poo that had been in freezer storage, marine biologists were surprised to find a USB stick embedded deep inside the scat.

The poo had been collected by a Kiwi vet who had been checking on the health of a skinny leopard seal on a beach in November 2017.

Scientists found that the USB drive was in “reasonably good condition” despite likely passing through the guts of a seal and spending a year frozen inside poo. And after drying out the drive for a couple of weeks, the researchers were surprised to find photos and a video intact.

NIWA then posted a video found on the USB stick to social media in an effort to locate the owner.


Within a day, the owner of the USB drive was found.




The brand and model of the USB drive hasn’t been revealed, but whatever drive it is can now advertise itself as being not only weatherproof but possibly digestion-proof as well.

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