Pretty cool.
Of course, it could be 11 am and mom’s saying “Get up, you lazy layabout! We’ve got to go catch lunch.” There’s no welfare office, SNAP or EBT for seals.
What is sentience, really? I think many animals are sentient.
Are we sure it wasn’t: “You’ve been asleep all morning. I told you yesterday to mow the lawn!”
Anyone with a heart not made of stone will be so touched by this chimp mom who thought her newborn was gone/died.
I think mothers among all mammals, land or sea, form varying strong bonds with their offspring; some only till the offspring is weened, some much longer and some for life.
With some reptiles and fishes mothers do not even see their offspring, leaving once the eggs are laid (or released) and not even around when the infants hatch.
Maybe the bonding difference is comes from how most mammals are so developmentally immature at birth that they must (for survival) be weened by their mothers initially, while many reptiles and fishes are off on thier own at birth.
Too cool.
All the while...millions of human mothers purposely amd knowingly murder their babies and get away with it.