*More photos will be uploaded once I have better WiFi*
Seal Bay is the third largest colony of Australian Sea Lions.
Females, or “cows”, spend two to three days at sea without rest, travelling up to 30kph and venturing up to 70km from the coast to fish. Then they come ashore for three days to recover, exhausted, where they’re reunited with their pup. Each sea lion works to her own schedule, but there will be about a third of the 900 population (about 8% of the world total) ashore at any one time. As she emerges, the pup will recognise her call and respond, mother and baby gradually getting closer to each other until their noses touch.
Pups will learn to swim at about 4 weeks, and after about 4 or 5 months, their mother will start to teach them to fish. By six months, the pups are venturing out for themselves. But they’re dependent on their mother’s milk until 17 months. Following one month’s weaning, they’ll head off by themselves… and the cow will give birth to another pup.
You see, it’s exhausting being a female Australian Sea Lion. About 7 – 10 days after giving birth, she’ll be fertile again. But only for 24 hours. Gestation is 18 months, so she’ll have the second pup as the first is leaving. And the cycle starts all over again. It means that she’ll give birth in summer one year, and in winter the next. The long gestation is unique amongst seals and sea lions and is thought to assist them with coping with limited resources.
Females are permanent residents of the colony and will always return. Males are more transient and will move between colonies which ensures genetic diversity in the greater population.
Pups first moult at 5 or 6 months, and then every 18 months. But all have a female coat at their first moult. Males don’t show until their second moult, when they’ll start to develop a light mane (hence “lions of the sea”).
Males spend time getting strong for mating season, travelling up to 100km offshore. The deepest recorded dive was 275m (astonishing!), and they can stay underwater for up to 12 minutes by storing oxygen in their muscles and blood; their heart rate slows down and arteries squeeze shut to provide the sense organs and nervous system with a normal blood flow. Skeletal adaptations enable their shoulder and collarbone joints to flex so their body becomes torpedo-like under pressure.
They can consume up to a third of their body weight and, once big and strong, they’ll return to shore to fight other males for the right to mate with a female. They don’t fight to the death, but to scarring – I saw many with war wounds:
Great white sharks are their natural predator, but here the reef stops large fish, so they’re pretty safe. And the vegetation is perfect too – in the winter, they’ll haul further up the beach into the natural caves created by the bushes to keep warm:
In fact, it was a great wildlife day. As well as the Australian Sea Lions, we increased our tally by two tiger snakes (deadly):
Remains of a juvenile humpback whale that washed up nearby after a winter storm in 1984 – it is likely it became separated from its mother during migration:
Tammar wallabies (found in the island’s dense vegetation with grassy feeding areas nearby):
Honeyeater:
Fire-tailed finch:
Red-browed finch:
Koala at the campsite:
And, unfortunately, two dead koalas – an Aussie tourist surmised that the male we saw last night had attacked the baby (in a bid to mate with the female) and in defending her offspring, she’d lost her life, too. Very sad.
Wallaby (at campsite):
A possum (no photo, because it was too dark).
I never get bored of seeing the beautiful superb wren:
And finished a brilliant day with a swim in Hanson Bay:
Other random stuff from today:
BOTD in the sink:
Interesting terminology on the recycle bin – feel like they’re over-complicating it somewhat and need to employ a Content Designer: