Sea Lion Challenge & Facts

Various land areas like sandy beaches or man-made structures with great sea access like jetties buoys and even piers. They like tropical and temperate climates and can be found there. Their range is from the East Coast of Anchorage Alaska to Southern Mexico. 

Female sealions will not have a sagittal crest like male sealions do, which develop by 10 years of age. Females are a smaller and sleeker in build than the bustling girth of a male sealion. When young, sealions pretty much look the same, As an adult a male may weigh in at 660-770lbs and at maximum weight may be nearly 4 times the size of a female.

They spend most of their time in the water but come ashore to sleep, rest, breed and in some cases, molt. On longer foraging trips, they actually sleep floating upright at the surface with the nose held above the surface of the water.

They are used for exploration and finding out what is in the aquatic and terrestrial environment. Sea lions lose their eyesight quickly or may be valuable while swimming in a lowlight environment. Imagine you were blindfolded and could not see an object just as you would use your hands to tell you what it is, sealions use their whiskers.

Sea lions’ teeth are black or dark brown. Sea lions do not have enamel on their teeth like us. Instead, they have a natural bacterium that builds up when they are young and helps protect the teeth.

Sealions and humans share the 5 commonly known traits of all mammals; born alive, breathing air, nursing young, being warm blooded and having hair. Their ability to learn and be trained and also teach culture are also similar traits.

Yes,technically they have 5, however 3 are prominent while the other two are barely noticeable. These nails are found on their hind flipper. To itch its whiskers, a sea lion will often rub its hind flippers on its face. Sea lions do not need pedicures though as the nails wear down on their own!

The normal lifespan for a sealion in the wild, differs between males and females. Males live about 8 years and for a females 12 years. Living in facilities, having access to human intervention and preventative care significantly increases their life span 2- 3 times over that of their wild counterparts. Sealions born at a facility may live up to 24 years.

Orcas and Sharks. These ambush predators predate upon sealions commonly. Larger sharks such as great white sharks will not expend all of their energy on a meal. They use the unexpected and unknown to their advantage. Stealth and ambush make for an easier meal. Orcas use a number of strategies to catch sealions. Tipping glaciers, sliding in and out of the shallows or fluke slaps to stun a sealion are just a few ways for them to have a sealion as a meal. Sealions do eat smaller or juvenile sharks as a part of their varied diet of marine animals.

In the wild, sea lions face a variety of natural threats and man-made challenges. Malnutrition causes the highest percentage of strandings, linked mostly to parasites and climate change due to El Niño events. The disease leptospirosis is the second most common cause of the strandings. The third most common cause is trauma, mostly caused by humans shooting the animals. Entanglement in marine debris, shark bites and propeller wounds are also factors.

Being respectful of sea lions is the best way to help them. Keeping the Ocean clean of marine debris – trash that has made its ways to the sea — and pollutants by REDUCING your trash, REUSING items and RECYCLING makes the sea a safer place for all marine life. Learn more about protecting marine mammals in the wild at the Watchable Wildlife Guidelines!