December 2015 Salish Sea, PNW
It’s the off-season for sea lions here in the Northwest, and usually they are pretty laid back as they lounge around their haulout site at Whale Rocks, snoozing. Occasionally when we take a circuit around the Rocks some are more active and it’s fun to see them interacting. Sea lions are intensely social creatures.
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This is non-pupping season. In summer at their rookeries on the open coastline of British Columbia they all expend huge quantities of energy; the males establishing and defending territories, the females pupping and raising their new babies, the subadults learning from their elders, practicing to be grownup sea lions. Winter is a time to build up energy feeding, resting and molting. Aside from the posturing and roaring that goes on as these golden giants climb out onto the rocks to find an available resting spot, most of the activity seems to be the youngsters playing amongst themselves.
A few days ago we saw a group of 6 by the Rocks in a tight group. Who knows what they were doing underwater but they’d surface together blowing spray and bumping each other. When they saw our boat go by they watched us intently and even dived as a phalanx in our direction. We were far enough off the rocks not to interfere with them — the rocky shoal, entangling kelp and unpredictable currents are enough to keep any boat away even if they don’t have an intrinsic respect for the wildlife, which we do. So they were playing, but even through a zoom lens these massive powerful mammals in their element are a bit scary. A larger and a smaller one gave us a good long stare.
Their eyes have a bulging look, which enables them to not only see well stereoscopically but also to the side. Subadults range from 2-4 years old.
They continued their play as we motored past them.
The “play” is practice for serious survival activity like hunting and facing off rivals. Most of their activity was underwater. The splashing of front and back flippers was explosive.
Social groupings on winter haulout sites like this one are looser than in pupping season but in general females hang together as do the subadults. The bulls claim the best spots on the rocks. Bulls have thick necks and manes which get bigger with age. They have two sleeping positions: draped over the rock or propped on front flippers nose pointing skyward. Their eyes are closed so I assume the latter is a comfortable pose. I can’t tell the difference between females and subadults so this might be a mix. Two are watching others in the water.
I can be fairly sure these lively ones are subadults. On this occasion they wrestled and bounded in and out of the water. Sources say they keep their mouths open as they wrestle to avoid actually injuring each other. Those teeth and jaws could as easily tear into sea lion flesh as into fish. Many of the bulls have scars from the more serious fighting that goes on in breeding season.
Pairs of young sea lions face-wrestling:
Sometimes the nearby bulls get annoyed, and will growl and push the youngsters into the water. I can practically hear them roaring “Knock it off!"
Days are short in the Pacific Northwest now. We head home. Sometimes I wonder what they do at night. Sources say they do much of their hunting then, darkness being no bar to creatures who primarily use their sense of touch to find food in these low-visibilty waters even in daytime. On a calm day like this who wouldn’t want to be relaxing in the rare sun (except maybe the kids!)
Sources:
www.nrcresearchpress.com/...
books.google.com/...
Nature preservation addendum!
I just found out that this haulout site, one of the most important in these waters, was recently purchased by the San Juan Preservation Trust. I hadn’t realized this half-acre barren rock was privately owned. Apparently it had been listed by a local real estate agency to the effect “scare off the seals and birds and have a private picnic on your own island.” This may have been tongue-in-cheek since you can smell these rocks a mile away downwind! Regardless, I’m so happy Whale Rocks are now legally protected for the spectacular wildlife who live there, winter and summer. Yay!
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As alway, all nature observations welcome in the comments below. Tell us what you’re seeing in your own natural neighborhood.
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