This week we’re off to Alaska and Peru.
This is a reblog, so you’ll have to bear with the link; but it is a fascinating story.
“Why do sea lions haul out?”
“It only begged the question:
What was it like before the Exxon-Valdez oil spill?”
“Why do sea lions haul out (video of haul out near Seward, Alaska)?”.
An insightful look at the world of sea-lions.
I had experience with sea-lions when I worked in Peru doing the tours to the Ballestas Islands which are home to many colonies and harems.
One of the colonies on the Ballestas Islands of the coast of Pisco in Peru. Image credit – AV
Life is very cruel for the pups. Sometimes a tour coincided with whelping during which the bull would come along and inspect the newborn pups, if the pup was male the bull would dash it to death on the rocks, it was pitiful to listen to the cries and the complaints of the cow. This cruelty was necessary to ensure more females were available than males for the harems. Nature is a very male dominated world.
Eco-Crap 
Posted by Alex Jones on November 4, 2012 at 6:28 pm
That is the raw side of nature.
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on November 4, 2012 at 6:58 pm
>Alex, one of the most heart rending things I have ever seen, and able to do nothing.
AV
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Posted by Alex Jones on November 4, 2012 at 7:12 pm
I can imagine this is hard to witness, it is a part of nature.
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Posted by Mike Knoche on November 4, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Thanks for the reblog. I like how you brought these worlds together. Cheers!
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on November 4, 2012 at 7:01 pm
>Mike, pleasure. At first I was confused, I’d never heard the term ‘hauling out’ before, but what you described so vividly brought back my own memories. Thanks for visiting, and the follow, I see.
AV
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Posted by Mike Knoche on November 4, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Thanks. I was just going to post the video without saying anything but when I looked for a photo to accompany it the memories flooded in. It’s understanding those simple things that gives us the ability to have a better understanding of the natural world.
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