A hungry sea lion pup wandered into an elegant beachside restaurant in search of something good to eat on February 4th in San Diego, California. The owners were unsure of how she got into the restaurant, but general consensus was that the pup snuck in a back door that morning while kitchen crews prepared for the day. The baby lion was discovered snuggled up in a booth by a window where it had a view of the sea, most likely wondering how to get back to its home. The manager called SeaWorld, who came and picked up the pup and determined that it was a female, around eight months old, that weighed almost half as much as a should have at that age due to dehydration and malnutrition. SeaWorld’s Animal Rescue Center plans to nurse the sea lion back to health and eventually release her back into the water. This problem of stranded sea lions outside of the ocean is becoming more and more prevalent, especially in recent El Nino years. 3,340 young sea lions were found stranded in the first few months of 2015. This was a dramatic increase from the 862 in 2014 and 1,262 in 2013. Due to the unusually warm waters in the Pacific Ocean, the food chain is being affected and causing animals such as sea lion pups to get out of the water as their mothers go further out to search for food. Hopefully, this sea lion in particular will be released back to the water to make itself a new home.
Works Cited Hauser, Christine. "A Hungry Sea Lion Wanders Into a Restaurant ..." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Feb. 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.
Works Cited Hauser, Christine. "A Hungry Sea Lion Wanders Into a Restaurant ..." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Feb. 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.