Now if only the Sea Lion had a hummingbird with a ferret riding it on its back.
Posted on 03/21/2015 12:28:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Dan Murphy was surfing Cardiff By-the-Sea when a wiggly little creature jumped on his board and crawled up his back.
At first, the Cardiff resident thought he was being attacked. But as he turned around, he saw a sea lion pup hugging him, as if the animal were scared.
Murphy, a longtime surfer, was amazed. On that Sunday morning off the shore of San Elijo Campground, a friendship was formed, he said.
“You see a lot of wildlife. You see those pups around this time of year,” he said. “I’ve never seen them interact with people like that.”
Murphy said the pup did not appear malnourished and suspects he was one of the sea lions rehabilitated by SeaWorld trainers and then returned to the wild, as the little guy appeared so comfortable around humans. The pup held on to Murphy for about 20 minutes before crawling into his lap “like a puppy,” he said. “He spent well over an hour on my board,” Murphy said.
Murphy spent the next hour floating on his surf board with the sea lion pup, as his friend, Eileen Quintilla, grabbed her camera from the shore and began snapping pictures.
When their human-sea lion bonding experience was over, Murphy said he had to nudge the pup off his board and say goodbye.
“I was literally in tears,” he said. “I waved to him."
Now if only the Sea Lion had a hummingbird with a ferret riding it on its back.
So adorable!
If you only get a quick glimpse at this photo, it could look x-rated. HEROICALLY x-rated, I might add.
My 2 cents, is like the YT video of a seal hitching a ride on the back of a boat, that, yes, surfers pose no threat, and that it was a good getaway from a predator.
LOL! Dudes lucky the predator missed it.
Yeah, just don’t let mark kelley-giffords daughter’s dog near it.
There is a better picture, but I couldn’t post it.
I guess not.
Friendly when they are pups, downright mean when they get big.
Criminy, I'd be scared out of my mind to be a seal and have to live in that water...
Cute lil guy, but even a pup's teeth are pretty impressive. Must admit to being a little concerned it might suddenly decide to bite down.
Steamer Lane: a great place to surf. I surf regularly at Rincon near Ventura. It’s enjoyable to see the dolphins casually swim by.
I surfed Steamer Lane maybe ten times and every time I discovered the local surfers to be courteous and helpful. Once I had trouble getting into the line-up and two guys kindly let me in.
Sea lions are loved by sharks in Santa Cruz and surfers need to be careful. San Diego has fewer sharks and friendlier sea pups.
I'd love to surf Rincom sometime before I die - I understand Tom Curren surfs Rincon often. He's a role model for us over 50 guys.
In northern California, off our coast, we have the red triangle because of the number great whites hunting and feeding in that area.
Those of us who kayak, SUP board or are young enough to surf board, should know that if a seal pup tries to get in or on your kayak, SUP or surf board.
He/she/it isn't trying to be friends. He/she/it is afraid that a great white is in the water.
Penguin evades pod of Killer Whales by jumping into a raft of people
There were several things about this that jumped out at me (besides the annoying music they had playing in the background):
First: The orca's all swam away after seeing the penguin in the raft. Those whales could have completely swamped the boat and killed every single person in it. It would have been child's play for them. But they looked out, saw there were humans in the raft, and just swam away. I found that fascinating. I think they understand messing around with humans is, in the end, simply a bad idea. They have a pretty good idea, I think, of what man is capable of, and just don't want any part of us. They probably understand that if there were a pod of whales intentionally killing humans, they would be mercilessly hunted to extinction.
It kind of reminded me of a conversation I once had with my brother, and after we had seen this:
we wondered how horrible it would be to have some kind of winged predator (think hawk to chipmunk) that preyed on humans...like a tiger with wings...
We thought for a split second about it, and at the exact same moment said "Naah. We would hunt them to extinction. No question."
The second thing that really jumped out at me about that video was the behavior of the penguin. It seemed not only nonchalant, but outright defiant about the whales. It walked along the sides of the raft with seeming total indifference to the huge, deadly predators just a few feet away.
If I had been that penguin, I would have been lying down on the floor as far away as possible from any seawater, hidden from view. But the penguin just hopped up on the side of that puny inflatable raft, and walked around looking into the water as if there were a mildly interesting piece of trash floating by. I was so tickled by it that I made this:
Now, I KNOW it is a weakness of humans to anthropomorphize everything including cars and computers, but I SWEAR, if that penguin had pants, they would be down to expose his tail feathers to the whales!
Excellent response.
I worked a couple of summers in the forrestry service, and an early warning of a fire was critters moving towards and away from you.
Now that is the best sea lion pic!
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