Baby Seal

Sea Lion

Listen to the sea lion
<a href="/media/sealion.wav">[Listen to the Sea Lion]</a>

• There are white seals and seals that swim but no white seals that swim. By the time the white seals (the newborns) are ready to swim, they've turned brown.
• Seals have to learn how to swim (from their mothers...just as we learn how to do so many things from ours).
• The richest milk is said to come from the mother seal.
• A seal stops breathing when it goes to sleep, even on land. Wakes up every 15 minutes or so to catch its breath. In fact, an elephant seal, when asleep, may go for as long as a half an hour without taking a breath!
• The difference between sea lions and seals is that sea lions have visible ears.
• On land, sea lions walk, seals crawl.
• Female sea lions are pregnant 364 days a year.
• An adult seal can be out at sea for as long as eight months.
• The sea lion is susceptible to sunburn, and if put on board a ship will get as seasick as a man.
• There once were more sea lions on earth than people.