Enrichment comes in all shapes and sizes at the Aquarium. Recently we decided to see what the sea lions thought of peas. Yup, tiny, green, frozen, boring little peas. Here's how they reacted.



Not so boring after all! Zoe was really into this tasty activity. Sierra? Not so much. Every animal is different with their own unique personality.

These two.

See what kind of mischief these two have gotten into over the years:

• Whee! Playing in the sprinkler is fun for sea lions too
• Rain drops. Fun times.
• Blowing bubbles is a new kind of awesome.
• Oh, and they can get into shenanigans
• Slip and slide! Dancing! Soccer! Video bonanza

Male Northern fur seals grow at an incredible rate, and our male Leu is no exception. He came to us in June of 2012 at approximately nine months of age and he weighed only 29 lbs. His tiny size was due to the fact that he was found stranded as a very young pup along the coast of California. If you have been following our Marine Mammal Trainers Blog, you may remember the videos we showed you of Leu as a baby. He was missing some patches of guard hair but even then he was such a good looking little guy. The video below shows his first introduction to our behind the scenes area. Look at how cute he is!


Video from June 2012

Since that video was taken, Leu has been growing in leaps and bounds. As a growing animal he takes lots of naps and his favorite places to sleep are in the turtle pool and on our tactile toy in our holding room. Here are some pictures taken over the past two years.

November 2014

November 2014

If you've ever wondered what a sea lion tongue looks like, Seirra here can show you! She often sticks her tongue out during quiet moments—and we happen to think it's just plain adorable.

Sierra the California sea lion, "Plllffffft!"

Quiet moments for this gal are few and far between, however. You'll usually find her romping with her fellow sea lion, Zoe, or carousing with the youngsters—Leu, Flaherty, Chiidax and Kit.

Zoe and Sierra are two peas in a pod.

Sometimes the trainers engage the seals and sea lions with a little enrichment—something out of the ordinary that's fun to explore and play with. A plain old garden sprinkler works for this!

Sprinkler time

Sierra's athletic and acrobatic sides are often on full display during training sessions. Head out to the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center during your next visit to check on Sierra and the rest of the rambunctious crew of marine mammals. You never know what these fast and fascinating animals will be up to!

Learn more about the marine mammal training and play:

• Speaking of tongues,  see Chacoda the harbor seal's handsome tongue
• Lindsay and Leu have been working on some pretty nifty Frisbee skills
• Paul taught Chacoda to wear a harness and he's become quite the GoPro videographer
• It's not all work and no play, the fur seal pups get to play in the snow sometimes!

Leu, a rescued Northern fur seal

Leu dove right into the activity, snarfing small fish and squid from the jack-o-lantern

Leu even stuffed his whole head into the pumpkin, and then tried to dribble the gourd into the water!

Zoe, California sea lion

Zoe did not enjoy playing with the pumpkins as much, until...

... the pumpkin splashed into the water. Then there were some curious pumpkin bobbers!

You may not know that Leu the Northern fur seal LOVES to play catch (just like our sea lion ladies). It's a game he's been playing since he arrived 2012. I thought it would be fun to see if he could hone those tossing skills and play a friendly game of Frisbee with me.



In no time, he had a signature throw down! Even if it happens to fall, Leu will pick it up quickly and send it back to me. This has been in the works for just a few days —see how good he already is! He'll be ready for ultimate in no time...

Maybe Leu is dreaming of Frisbees

-Lindsay