Leo The Sea Lion Makes Friends (On Camera)!

Photo credit: www.treehugger.com

Leo, the star of our video, is a rescued Stellar sea lion. Currently 7-months old and weighing in at 200 pounds, this lucky fellow is well on his was to a full recovery and being returned to the wild!

Leo has made some serious improvements compared to his physical health conditions when he was originally rescued, but a large part of rehabilitation is socialization.

The young sea lion pup was found orphaned on a beach in Ocean Shores, Washington State, dehydrated and extremely malnourished. At first, he was taken to PAWS Wildlife Center in Lynnwood but because they had no other animals for Leo to interact with he was moved to the Marine Mammal Center.

Check out the video of Leo making friends:

“Leo is young, so he needs to get a sense of the social structure in the wild,” says Dr. Cara Field, Staff Veterinarian at the Center. “With Bubbly taking a leadership role, he’s modeling behavior that Leo can learn from and emulate once he’s released.”

Socialization plays a key role in Leo’s rehabilitation for two reasons.

1) He was orphaned as a pup so learning grooming, foraging and survival skills from other sea lions is crucial.

2) Sea lions are a social species in general. Once returned to the wild, Leo must be able to interact with other members of sea lion populations.

Did you know that these mammals congregate in protected areas on land as well as forming rafts (many sea lions on surface of water very close to one another) of sea lions in the ocean!?

Photo credits: (left) www.joannavolavka.com (right) www.smalltalk.staradvisorblogs.com

Stellar sea lions are considered a “Nearly Threatened” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Read more about Leo’s story on the Marine Mammal Center’s website.