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A PLAYFUL TEMPERAMENT
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Sea
lions are natural acrobats, also intelligent and playful. They will often
catch a fish, let it go, and catch it again. They are usually trained
to perform in circuses and are quite good with a ball. Sociable and enjoyable,
they like to show off. They utter a sound "Uhh, Uhh", which
can be heard at long distances. It could mean a greeting or a warning.
Whether smiling or mimicking, sea lions have many human traits.
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CALIFORNIA
SEA LIONS
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Best known are California sea lions, which live along the Pacific Coast
from British Columbia to Mexico. Bulls can reach eight feet in length
and weigh up to 500 pounds. Cows may be six feet long and weigh half
as much as males.
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Sea lions in the wild have a life expectancy of five to fifteen years. In captivity, they often live to be more than twenty. All pictured in this calendar are California sea lions, the most intelligent and playful of all.
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LIVING IN TWO
WORLDS
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Sea lions are classed as pinnipeds (Latin for "finfooted" because their back flippers look like fins),
they are warm-blooded mammals. |
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Unlike
true seals, sea lions have inch-long ears and they are better adapted to
traveling on land. They can walk for up to 30 minutes by turning their hind
flippers forward and using all four of their webbed flippers as feet. Scientists
think these animals may have lived entirely on land some 20-million years
ago, before finding the sea a better place to feed. |
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Like humans, they have lungs, they must maintain a steady body temperature, and the females nurse their young, their pups.Sea lions spend three-fourths of their lives in the water, their natural habitat, feeding on squid, octopus and fish. They do not chew their food but just gulp it.
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Their long, stiff
whiskers and large eyes enable them to find fish even in the dimmest light.
With strong muscles and powerful foreflippers they move underwater at speeds
up to 20 miles per hour. They swim for long distances, can dive to depths
of more than 600 feet and return swiftly to the surface. They can stay underwater
for up to 25 minutes and they even sleep in the water just offshore. |
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FAMILY LIFE
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Sea lions mate on land and their pups are born in rookeries along the shore. During the breeding season,
the males stake out territories on shore and establish harems of 10 to 15
females.
Each cow bears a single pup, about twelve to fourteen
pounds and thirty inches long. The cow only nurses her own baby.
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She nuzzles her
pup and recognizes it by sound and smell. If another pup wants to nurse,
she may toss it fifteen feet away. Although the pups are nursed for six
months, they are able to eat fishin a few months after birth. By the time
they are weaned, they are ready to go to sea with their mothers.
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