Since the feasts of Thanksgiving, many people are getting outside to work off that turkey and gravy today. Whether you're taking a stroll, hitting the gym, raking or playing an informal game of touch football, there are plenty of ways to get active.

Zoe paused just long enough for us to snap a picture.

In fact, play is a great way for kids of all ages to move it! Take the sea lions, for example. Zoe and Sierra are almost always on the move, and they are indeed a playful pair. In honor of Fitness Friday this week, we thought we'd share just one of the ways these gals play.

Sprinkler time!

Zoe appears to love the way sprinklers and hoses feel in her mouth.

This picture shows how limber the sea lions are!

Zoe comes right up to the glass when the sprinkler is on, giving visitors an up-close look at these powerfully playful marine mammals.

The sprinkler isn't always on in the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center. This activity is just a periodic form of enrichment that the marine mammal trainers use to keep the seals and sea lions active—both mentally and physically. Of course, we don't expect folks in the colder Northern climes to run outside to play in the sprinkler. But we hope you can get outside to play today—why don't you come see the sea lions play! And we hope it was a happy Thanksgiving for all our readers.

We often talk about how athletic and graceful Northern fur seals are during Fitness Friday presentations, and here's some proof. Check out this video of Cordova showing off her flipperstand during a session at the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center.

And if you think Cordova's flipperstand is impressive, just wait until you see Isaac's!



Besides her exemplary flipperstand, Cordova can also be distinguished by her long whiskers!

Those are some impressive whiskers!

Usually when you hear the word "fitness," being physically fit is what comes to mind. Not only is it important for our marine mammals to stay in shape physically, but here at New England Aquarium, it's our job to make sure our furry friends stay in shape mentally as well. How do we do that? One way is through training new behaviors. Our training sessions often give our animals a mental workout by providing them with puzzles to solve.

A great example of a behavior that does this is something we call "innovative" training. Here's how it works. The trainer gives the animal a hand signal that basically means: do whatever you want to do this time. There's only one rule to this fun exercise. In order to get a reward, the animal needs to think of something different to do each time. This is one of my favorite types of training sessions because it shows just how creative these marine mammals can be!

Don't miss this video of Amelia, an Atlantic harbor seal, getting a mental workout!



Our harbor seals aren't the only ones that can be creative. Click the video below to see Isaac, a Northern Fur Seal, stretch his imagination!

The Boston Marathon is right around the corner, and the Aquarium's marathon team is gearing up for race day. Besides five months of training runs, there's another key skill needed to survive the 26.2 mile chute to Copley Square—high fives! Thousands of spectators turn out on the race course and that's a lot of hands to slap.

Fortunately Reggae the harbor seal is happy to help sisters Jocelyn and Justine Lescarbeau train for this. Watch Reggae as he leaps out of the water to give each sister a high five. (You might remember this sporty seal from his speed swim a while back...)



Reggae's high five is just one of the skills that he's learned while working with the trainers. These exercises help him stay fit physically and mentally.

The Aquarium's harbor seals are quite athletic, watch this guy spring out of the water!

Don't miss last year's marathon post with video of how harbor seals and fur seals get around. Hooray, runners!

At the Aquarium's New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center, Sierra the California sea lion has been practicing her porpoising skills, and she's getting pretty good.

Check out her moves in the video below.




See Sierra loll about in a spray of water, play in the snow (remember that stuff?) and play with a garden hose.

JELL-O! Check out Leu as he enjoys a game of catch with some solid pieces of gelatin. Stay tuned for another blog showing our sea lions joining in on the fun as well!









~Patty

Remember a couple of weeks ago when we showed one of our Northern fur seals learning a few steps of a dance? Well, since then Roxie has added some more steps to her repertoire. And she's been sashaying all around the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center, practicing her routine. Check out the video below to see how Roxie's dance is developing. Soon the trainers might decide she's ready for some music!

Leu, our rescued Northern fur seal, loves to zip around the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center playing with his friend Flaherty. But as you can see from the video below, young Leu has always been up for playing with whatever is handy.

Northern fur seals are natural athletes—lithe, graceful and flexible—so they have an advantage when they're learning a dance routine. But the fur seals need to learn movements step by step, just like dancers do. Whenever the trainers teach the seals or sea lions a new behavior, they don't ask for the entire behavior all at once. They work with the animal on a small segment of the behavior, reinforcing each correct move with fish, until the seal is comfortable with the movement, then they add another segment. In this video, a trainer is teaching Roxie a series of movements that will eventually be part of a dance sequence with music!

It's always more fun to get your exercise with friends than by yourself. At least our Northern fur seal pups, Leu and Flaherty, seem to feel that way. In the video below, you can see the two youngsters playing a kind of king of the hill game in the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center, with Flaherty on deck and Leu in the water. The two are pushing and shoving much like seals and sea lions do in the wild.

In this video, Flaherty is trying to defend the high ground of the deck. See what happens and who ends up being king of the deck.



As you can see, this jousting involves open-mouth playful grabs and lunges. You could say it's the seal version of arm wrestling and probably helps them learn how to protect themselves and their territory. You can also see who gets the last laugh—Isaac!

Leu and Flaherty play in the water and on land

If you've visited the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center recently, you've seen Leu, our young rescued fur seal, porpoising through the water with fluid grace, frolicking on the rocks and sending balls zipping across the deck with a quick flick of his flipper. Leu definitely has some moves!

But Leu didn't come to the Aquarium with his fancy flipper work. As you can see in this video, Kathy is working patiently with Leu to develop those skills. And like most of us, Leu had to do a lot of practicing before he started looking like he could take the field with the Revolution.

Spectator isn't a word usually applied to our sea lions, Zoe and Sierra. These two are most often seen moving around the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center at top speed, whether they're zipping through the water, porpoising or slaloming down the ramp that leads to the behind-the-scenes area. But in the video below Zoe and Sierra prove there are lots of ways to add exercise to your day, even when you are being a spectator.

The Atlantic harbor seals that reside in the exhibit on the Aquarium Plaza can often be spotted bobbing in the water, napping or playing with toys. Sometimes you can catch them during a group lap swim!


In this post, we explain how the harbor seals and fur seals use very different techniques to glide through the water. The fur seals use their long, flexible front flippers to propel themselves through the water. The harbor seals use their hind flippers and body to glide through the water, their short front flippers are used more for navigation.


Visitors love interacting with the seals on the Aquarium's Plaza.

Come by to watch the seals in action at the New England Aquarium. Pay attention to see how they move through the water, then head inside to compare the harbor seal swim with our fur seals and sea lions. There are many different ways to get moving, and that's OK. Just stay active!

Last week we showed you how Leu is learning some of the components of our fun fur seal obstacle course. He's just a little guy so he has a long way to go. But the mature fur seals, that's another story. In this picture you can see one of the svelte female fur seals scaling a speed bump and preparing to go under a limbo bar.



Believe it or not, the seals seem to enjoy these physical and mental challenges. It's all part of keeping our fur seals healthy and happy.

After yesterday's Thanksgiving feasts, it's a good day to get active and burn some energy! Go for a walk, throw the football around or even create an obstacle course for you and some friends. If you need some inspiration, check out these obstacle course challenges from when Aquarium staffers took on the fur seals!

Who's Tougher?
Triathlon Triumph
Water Hoops and Limbo
In Balance

One of our little guys is joining the big kids at school! Leu has started working with trainers to learn some new skills. These training sessions are as much to keep the seals and sea lions active and fit as to keep their brains sharp. Leu is practicing the limbo with Paul right now.



This limbo skill isn't simply a fun activity. It's one piece of an obstacle course that we like to show off on Fitness Fridays. Maybe you remember our Northern fur seals competing against people in some obstacle course challenges? Little by little, Leu will learn the skills and he'll be able to compete in the races, too.


Not quite, Leu. Try again.


That's it! Good boy!

We talk a lot about the sea lions and their antics. But they're not the only youngsters! Leu (the Northern fur seal pup rescued earlier this year) and Flaherty (the pup born to Ursula in July) are growing up and testing out their new-found strength on the deck and in the water.



Play is an important part of an active lifestyle. Sometimes it means being on a sports team, sometimes it means just kicking the ball around with a friend. If you're a fur seal, it means rough housing, pretending you're an adult male fur seal protecting your territory.



For Leu and Flaherty, play continues until they get tired or Flaherty's mom, Ursula, breaks things up (as you saw in the video). He's is still a baby protected under her watchful eye. But Flaherty's growing fast. If you want to see this little guy before he grows to be as big as his dad Isaac, you better come visit the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center!

Those sea lions, always up to something. Most recently they tore through the exhibit in a high-energy game of keep away, just another example of how you can get good exercise with some fun and games. And here, Exhibit A.



Zoe and Sierra really took porpoising to new levels with this game. It's amazing to watch them fly through the air and zip through the water. Check out more videos of them in action here, here and here.



You may have noticed the wall flowers in the background—the mature fur seals were having none of the young sea lions games. But did you hear Baranov whickering in the background? He seemed to be defending his patch of deck from the other male, Isaac, and those rascally pups.

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!