Animal Directory Featured species in the planned Aquarium & Marine Realm habitat
California Sea Lion
Zalophus californianus
LC
Fun facts
- Can dive to depths of 270 metres and hold its breath for up to 10 minutes, using muscle-stored oxygen the way whales do.
- Among the fastest swimming pinnipeds, capable of bursts of 40 km/h using its powerful foreflippers as wings underwater.
- Routinely rated among the smartest non-primate mammals — has been taught abstract logic, symbol matching, and to keep time to music.
- Males develop a high bony crown on the skull (the "sagittal crest") at sexual maturity and roar continuously to defend rookery territory.
- IUCN lists the species as Least Concern with a robust, growing population estimated above 250,000 individuals.
From the master plan
The California Sea Lion is the planned Aquarium & Marine Realm’s Sea Lion Cove resident — the most personality-forward animal in the zone, holding court across the rocky haul-out and underwater viewing window with the kind of barking that carries the length of the building.
IUCN status sourced from the California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) assessment (Aurioles-Gamboa & Hernández-Camacho, 2015) on the IUCN Red List — listed as Least Concern with an increasing population trend.