California Sea Lions

Suborder        Family       Genus       Species

                 Pinnipedia                           Otaridae                         Zalophus                  Californianus
Habitat: British Columbia Canada to Baja Mexico
Description: Males grow up to 700 pounds and 6 feet in total length. Color from buff to chocolate brown. Fur is short and course.  Mature males form a sagittal crest on forehead at about 5 years of age.  External ear flaps are obvious, whiskers (vibrissae) are highly sensitive and used for hearing. Powerful "wolf-like" jaws full of sharp teeth resembling those of canines are capable of easily ripping the belly from a large salmon.
Intelligence:  Highly intelligent, very noisy and playful, quick to relate to humans

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California Sea Lions haul out at Bird Rock just off Northern California coastline.  Many times they share the rock island with Harbor Seals

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California Sea Lion pup rests on his mother's back.  Pups stay with their mothers for approximately the first year. It has been found that female pups stay with their mothers longer than the males.  Perhaps they need to stay and learn the fine art of mothering near their natal site so that they can become intricately familiar with the local distribution of food resources for the well being of their future offspring.

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This fully grown female sea lion is buff color with light vibrissae.  Her small ear flaps are plainly visible.  This is one way to tell seals from sea lions.  Sea lions have ear flaps, seals have ear slits that are hardly visible.

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This is only one sad example of an injury caused by monafiliment nets floating throughout the oceans.  The sea creatures do not sense the nets and get caught in them.  If it is a large piece they will drown, if it is a smaller piece it will stay around their neck and slowly choke them.  This rescued pup was one of the lucky ones which did recover.  It was almost too late, he had almost starved to death when he came to the shore to die. Other slow and painful injuries can be inflicted by plastic soda pop holders, plastic bags, fishing line, Styrofoam, and other garbage thrown into the ocean by thoughtless humans.