A bold encounter between a dog and a sea lion at Cardiff State Beach in Encinitas, California on Sunday afternoon had beachgoers entertained for some time. Images taken by one of those onlookers captured the interesting exchange.
According to local Fox affiliate Fox 5, the small dog got away from its owner and darted towards the sea lion in what could have been an attempt to attack it.
The owner quickly leashed the dog and pulled it away from the wild sea mammal, but not before Hajnalka Kovacs Stiblane took pictures capturing the moment.
A rare encounter between a dog and a sea lion was captured on video in New Zealand and posted on YouTube. The username twizel08 posted a warning on the video advising people of the dangers inherent in encountering animals in the wild.
“Normally I would no more let my dogs play with a sea lion than a grizzly bear. But this boy was very unusual. He played with my young dog for about 45 minutes.”
Fox 5 notes that Sea lions along the San Diego coasyhave gained a lot of attention lately. A report in the Sacramento Bee pointed to a growing concern over a number of sea lions who have suffered brain damage due to a tiny toxin called domoic acid, produced by marine algae known as pseudo-nitzschia, that kills brain cells.
An adorable male sea lion pup was found wandering on the streets of San Francisco’s Marina District this past April in search of food. “Rubbish” has a history of being recused. He had been found malnourished by the Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center in February and was treated for pneumonia before being released back into the water in March.
2015 reportedly saw an unprecedented number of sea lion rescues. Some experts suggest 2016 could see even more.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz and on Facebook.
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