-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
What this sea lion is doing? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mila
- Start date
Mila
Well-known member
I sent the video to Marc Webber, Research Associate Cetacean Field Research Program, and here’s his response:
“This juvenile has some sort of upset stomach. When this happens, they will readily throw-up or try to throw-up the stomach contents. This is achieved by the sequence of the abdominal heaving you see that preceded the regurgitation. In this case, it is a bit more of a "try," as all that came-up looked like foamy fluid with mucous. All normal and routine, and the animal otherwise looks fit and healthy with a good layer of body fat. You may have also seem them cough, snort, sneeze and hack at times, another common thing to witness here and there in a group of hauled-out sea lions, and also quite normal as long as it is not continuous or bloody. The throat movements at the end of this animals experience are just tongue movements that are efforts to re-swallow whatever did not get expelled on its neighbor and ended-up in the back of the throat!”
“This juvenile has some sort of upset stomach. When this happens, they will readily throw-up or try to throw-up the stomach contents. This is achieved by the sequence of the abdominal heaving you see that preceded the regurgitation. In this case, it is a bit more of a "try," as all that came-up looked like foamy fluid with mucous. All normal and routine, and the animal otherwise looks fit and healthy with a good layer of body fat. You may have also seem them cough, snort, sneeze and hack at times, another common thing to witness here and there in a group of hauled-out sea lions, and also quite normal as long as it is not continuous or bloody. The throat movements at the end of this animals experience are just tongue movements that are efforts to re-swallow whatever did not get expelled on its neighbor and ended-up in the back of the throat!”
