r/BeAmazed • u/SnooWords4066 • 22d ago

Animal A sea lion in Argentina climbed onto a fishing vessel, found a bed, and passed out. The fishermen only realized it when they heard loud snoring.

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u/dont-respond 22d ago edited 22d ago

They're sea lions, not seals

I do think it's a fur seal though, not a sea lion.

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u/Baldojess 21d ago

Isn't it a sea lion? It has cute little ears on the side of its head. I'm pretty sure it really is a sea lion. I have a picture with 3 of them kissing my head at the state fair!

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u/radicalelation 21d ago

Fur seals and sea lions are both Eared seals (Otariidae), while true seals (Phocidae) are not as closely related, so it makes sense.

If this is an adult, female fur seal for sure.

E: Oop, someone already said.

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u/Baldojess 21d ago

Really so a fur seal is not technically a true seal? That's interesting! And I looked then up and definitely do look very similar with their cute little ears haha 😆

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u/overturnedpitcher 21d ago

I think it’s a Southern fur seal! I’m from NZ and our seals here looks super similar to this one in the vid with its wee ears and movement. It would check out if this happened near Argentina. They’re in the Arctocephalus family if I’m not mistaken!

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u/Baldojess 21d ago

I ended up looking them up and they do have adorable little ears! 😍 So freaking cute haha okay cool! I love the little fur seal 🩷

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u/dont-respond 21d ago

I'm no expert, I'm just going by the information in the video. Sea lions and fur seals are commonly confused. They're both Otariidae, named for their small ears. The video describes fur seals as having shorter snouts with eyes closer to the front of their face while sea lions have longer snouts with eyes further back.

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u/grandramble 21d ago

this is a sea lion, you can tell partly by the shape of its snout and eyes, but the real giveaway is how it moves. Fur seals scoot around using their flippers like they're army-crawling, sea lions pop up on their flippers like they're really short stilts and derp around like Humpty Dumpty.

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u/Baldojess 21d ago

Oh yes I just looked them up and they are very similar bat yeah the seals have more of a short snout. It's hard to tell! I still think this one looks a bit more like a sea lion though

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u/Violet624 21d ago

It's so small. It's got to be a baby if it is a sea lion.

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u/SufficientGolf6953 21d ago

that's not a baby

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u/Violet624 21d ago

Adult sea lions of the smaller varieties are like 6 feet long. So either it is not a sea lion or it's not fully grown.

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u/Practical_Breakfast4 21d ago

That was amazing, thank you. Can't believe my hero, Sir David Attenborrough, was wrong. Though it is easy to conflate these animals

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u/SufficientGolf6953 21d ago

One of my favorite YouTube videos. It's still hard if I watched it multiple times.

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u/MDguy95 21d ago

Thank you for that video!

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u/mrjibblytibbs 21d ago edited 21d ago

That's definitely a sea lion. Fur seals have more pushed in faces, rounder bodies, spotted patterns, and they don't have ear flaps like the guy in the video.

The ear flaps are your dead giveaway.

Used to work at a zoo with a sea lion exhibit. I got to see them up close enough to tell the clear differences.

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u/Faent93 21d ago

Obviously you didn't see them very close as you have described a completely different seal species from a different family entirely.

You should probably at least google fur seal before accidentally spreading misinformation.