Feeding times are always a big plus at zoos and mid-morning we joined the Californian Sea Lions for their ‘Splash Safari!” and a very wet one it proved to be for anyone sitting in the first two rows of the vast amphitheatre in which this display – a performance really – took place. They had been warned and indeed at the end of the show were invited down so that both the thrashing sea lions on show could deluge them with water!!
I have seen a few Seal and Sea Lion displays in recent years mainly in Norway at Tromsø and in Murmansk Russia. Both were good but the display this morning takes the prize for me. Both seals and sea lions are highly intelligent animals and are trained to enrich their lives in captivity and to keep them from getting bored. The delight of the performance this morning was not only the usual acts of balancing balls and catching Frisbees but demonstrating how sea lions evade predators either by porpoising or making great back flips out of the water (See photo).
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