Exercise comes in many shapes, sizes and species sometimes. For your Fitness Friday enjoyment today, we give you marine mammal trainer Kathy playing catch with Zoe, the California sea lion.



Our marine mammals get lots of enrichment, which helps stimulate their brains as much as their athletic muscles. See more videos of Zoe playing soccer, doing the high jump, learning the crawl stroke and goofing off with a garden hose—all fun and enriching activities that help her stay active!

It's been well-established that the sea lions are an active pair here, here, here and here. Sometimes they're so lightning-fast it's hard to see them! We thought we'd take a moment to slow things down a bit and see just how athletic this pair is.

Let's take porpoising, for example. Porpoising is when an animals leaps out of the water while swimming. Penguins do it. The harbor seals do it. So do the sea lions! Can you see how Zoe and Sierra take a big stroke with their front flippers to propel themselves out of the water?



It takes agility in the water, strength to leap into the air and, of course, a lot of spunk to make it look so easy and fun! So come by to see the sea lions. Don't blink and you might just see them get some air!

As you probably gathered from the video posted in this entry, our youngest fur seals—Flaherty and Leu—are best buddies. They play with each other all day long (when they're not napping, that is, puppies have to nap). The fur seal pups get into all sorts of activities, like running, swimming, playing king of the rock. Well... you'll see. Just check out our home movies.


On Fitness Fridays we like to point out ways our marine mammals are staying active. Running, swimming and playing are all parts of an active lifestyle, which is a key part of staying healthy. Here at the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center, we start that healthy lifestyle young.

High five!

Newborn Flaherty from earlier this summer. He's much bigger now, but just as adorable!