The Pinniped Post

Last weekend I visited the Mystic Aquarium and took part in their "Sea Lion Spotlight" program.  This is a shorter encounter that occurs during one of their daily Sea Lion Shows, where the person taking part in the encounter will come up onto the stage and briefly interact with one of the Sea Lions in the show.  I absolutely loved it!   Complimentary rose, given to me by Cali the Sea Lion. In the past, I had taken part in Mystic Aquarium's "Seals Up Close" program and loved it - you can read about this encounter at this link .  There are also may other encounters which you can read about at this link , including a "Sea Lions Up Close" program (which is on my "to do" list).  The "Sea Lion Spotlight" encounter is held during one of the Sea Lion shows, where you will have a couple of minutes to interact with a Sea Lion on the stage during the show for a close-up and personal view. Introducing Cali, the Sea Lion th...

While thinking about the rotundness of the chonky Baikal Seal, I wondered if there were any other "chonkier" Seals that looked rounder.  I wondered if I could actually calculate a ranking of seal "chonkness."  Because Seals come in different lengths, I had to compare the width of a Seal in comparison to their length.  For example, if a Seal has a 7 foot width but a 25 foot length, they will not be as "chonky" as a Seal with a 4 foot width and a 4 foot length, who would be a perfect sphere of rotund beauty and an absolute chonk. Since Seals with a longer length remind me of a cucumber, I called those who were more oblong than spherical ones with "High Cucumber."  Of course, those Seals who were more of little squished ovals becoming close to spheres of happiness are those with "High Chonk."  Please see my drawings below.  High Chonk:  Seal Approaching a Spherical Shape My drawing  High Cucumber:  Seal Approaching an ...

In the late 1990s there was a project known as SLEWTH - "Sea Lions Exploring Whales and Their Habitats."  Researchers attached harnesses with cameras to the Sea Lions and trained the Sea Lions to swim next to Whales, and record the behavior of the Whales.  Two Sea Lions names "Sake" and "Beaver" were trained to follow a model Whale in the ocean, and then encountered real Whales. Photo from website discussing SLEWTH When the Sea Lions encountered real Whales in the ocean, the Sea Lions were agitated.  Beaver was so agitated after encountering a Whale that he jumped out of the water and back into the research boat.  What the researchers needed to do was get the Sea Lions more used to Whales. In the late 1990s, Sea World at San Diego was rehabilitating a Gray Whale named "JJ." JJ rehabilitating at San Diego Sea World To help Beaver and Sake get used to being around larger animals and help them get information about how different ...

It is a fact that Pinnipeds are cute.  Really, this post should not exist because it is such a commonly-known fact.  See, for example, my photo below of Cobh, the pupper Harbor Seal at the Mystic Aquarium. Cute. However, there may be some of you out there who want proof that Pinnipeds are cute.  Fine. What people find cute has been studied by Psychologists.  For example, in the paper " Baby Schema In Human and Animal Faces Induces Cuteness Perception and Gaze Allocation in Children " Psychologists found that people find the attributes of having a round face, big eyes, high forehead, small nose, and small mouth as being judged as "cute" when given a set of photos of different people, babies, and animals to examine. Pinnipeds fit all of these attributes.  Round face and big eyes?  Always. Also, derpiness is cuteness Small nose and mouth?  Of course! Fur Seal is upset that you would question his cuteness. High forehead...

With the exception of the Baikal Seals that live in freshwater in the Caspian Sea, Seals live in the salty oceans.  However, every now and then you can read about a Seal who swam up a freshwater river. These rivers that the Seals were found in are freshwater, so Seals can survive in freshwater for some amount of time as long as there are fish to eat.  I like to think that they also hunt for wild jello cubes, but I have never seen a jello cube outside of an aquarium. So, what kind of water is in a Seal habitat at aquariums - freshwater or saltwater?  Members of the "Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums" (an organization that comes up with guidelines for aquariums and marine mammal parks to follow to keep marine mammals happy and safe) keep water salinity (the amount of salt in the water) at not less than 22 Parts Per Thousand, per guidelines found at  https://www.ammpa.org/membership/standards-guidelines .  That is about 4 teaspoons o...

Walrus have a lot of whiskers because they need to search for food on the seafloor.  Unlike other Pinnipeds that eat fish, Walrus eat mollusks and other creatures that live in the seabed.  Because their eyes are placed on the side of their head, Walrus have a difficult time seeing their food, so they have to use whiskers to feel for their food. How sensitive are Walrus whiskers? Around 30 years ago, a group of researchers did an experiment to find out.  First, the researchers trained a Walrus to nod if he felt a triangle or shake his head if he felt a circle when nuzzling a board with a triangle shape on one side and a circle on the other side.  The Walrus had earphones over his eyes so that he couldn't see the shape, and the researchers would know that the Walrus was feeling the shape with his whiskers and not looking at it. Photo of training setup, from the paper " The sensitivity of the Vibrissae of a Pacific Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). Part 1" ...

I wrote before about some differences about Seals and Sea Lions. There is one big difference between Seals and Sea Lions that I forgot to write about, which is that Sea Lions like to vocalize and Seals are generally quiet. Sea Lions are extroverts.  They talk all of the time.  For example, when I was at the Bronx Zoo we could always here the California Sea Lions vocalizing. From what I have observed, Steller Sea Lions are not as talkative as California Sea Lions, but it does not take a long amount of time to hear them when you observe them in an aquarium.  If you want to hear what a California Sea Lion sounds like, click on this link to the Marine Mammal Center:   http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/marine-mammal-information/pinnipeds/california-sea-lion/#sounds There is a time when Seals do vocalize a lot.  Mother Seals can recognize the individual cries of her little Pupper, and the little Pupper will reply.  As they call back and forth, ...