The Mighty Galapagos Sea Lion

Roister

\ROY-stur\ , intransitive verb;

1. to engage in boisterous merrymaking; to revel; to carouse

2. to bluster; to swagger

So I'm back on the blog-wagon and I am determined to keep this thing at least semi-up to date. My life is not so interesting now that I am back in California. I'm mainly enjoying spending time with family and freaking out about grad schools (more of that to come in later posts).

But for now I want to introduce Photo Phridays... no Foto Fridays? Photo Fridays?

I have such a large gallery of really neat photos that I'd like to share somewhere, so I thought this would be as good a place as any.

So today I bring you the Galapagos Sea Lion, from the small island of San Cristobal, where I lived and studied for about 4 months.

The word roister is really apt for these creatures. They are incredibly playful, expressive, loud and they do have a sort of swagger to them.

Two baby sea lions, with a female swimming in the back.

This would be me, conversing with a juvenile.

A sea lion pup being dramatic and woebegone . That or he's posing.

I love this picture because the sea lion looks so out of place, like she's living in a grassland or something. But really there is some ocean just a few steps away.

A female, full grown sea lion.

That big bulky blob in the water? That's the alpha male. Notice how much larger he is than the females.

Some interesting facts about the Galapagos Sea Lion.

-They are closely related to the California Sea Lion but are considered a separate species.

-The IUCN declared them Endangered in 2008, though population data is pretty limited.

-To tell the difference between a sea lion and a seal look at the head. If there are ear flaps it's a sea lion, if not, it's a seal. Also sea lions have a rotating pelvis, so they can "walk" on land much easier than a seal.

-To tell male from female look for a slight bump on the crown of the male's head. If it's an alpha male this bump will be large.

-In Ecuador they call the sea lion, los lobos marinos, or lobos for short. In English that translate to sea wolves.