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Showing posts from January, 2020

Seals

At the far end of Sandfly Bay a couple of New Zealand Sea Lions are sleeping. These are young males, probably 4 or 5 years old. They are sexually mature, and weigh about 300 kg - a fair old weight but only 2/3 of the way to their final destination of about 450 kg. Until they are big enough and skilled enough to take and hold a section of beach they will not be able to father pups. So for the next 2 or 3 years they will keep well out of the way of the big males. They will sleep, grow, and practice the fighting skills needed to become fathers. They are handsome beasts, but only if you stay a fair way away. Close up they are fly ridden and malodorous. They are also already heavily scarred from their practice fights. They wake, and begin to try and intimidate one another. They rear up,making themselves as impressive as possible. They bite and lunge at one another. It is a game. These two choose to sleep near one another, and probably fish together. But it is also de