Swim With Sea Lions | Dolphin Swimming

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Dolphin Discovery Cozumel Welcomes Sea Lions!

// January 13th, 2010 // View Comments // Cozumel, Locations, News

Dolphin Discovery Cozumel is very pleased to have some new residents, sea lions have come to our island paradise! Our sea lion guests have a beautiful new home and are ready to put on a great show, swim with you and even give you a fishy little kiss. The dolphins and manatees in Cozumel are happy to have new friends with them and give them a big welcoming hug and squeal. Join us in Cozumel for our Sea Lion Discovery program, laugh, smile and frolic with these friendly creatures in the beautiful Chankanaab Park.

Sea lion checks out his new home in Cozumel

Sea lions are part of the “pinniped” family, “pinniped” meaning “wing foot”, a great way to describe their flippers. They are carnivorous marine mammals who spend much of their time in the water hunting for food, but they also like to relax on the shore and soak up the sun. Male sea lions are called “bulls”, females are “cows” and the bulls like to create harems of females during mating season to create their legacy of baby sea lions called “pups”. A group of sea lions is called a “colony” and they love to hang out close together and are frequently seen at play on rocky shores. Baby sea lions are born on land but are ready to swim within a few weeks of birth. The whiskers of the sea lion are much like those of cats, very sensitive and necessary for finding their way through a sometimes dark ocean. Sea lions eat fish and invertebrates such as octopus and will eat as much as seven to sixteen kilograms or fifteen to thirty five pounds each day! Sea lions are incredibly intelligent animals and can be trained to perform a variety of actions and interact with humans, they’ve been delighting humans for years with their antics.

Swim with sea lions in Cozumel

Dolphin Discovery Cozumel is excited to announce our schedule of sea lion activities. Join us for two shows daily, the first at 12:00 pm and the second at 2:30 pm. We offer two times daily for swimming and interacting with sea lions in our Sea Lion Discovery program, 10:30 am and 1:00 pm. Contact our bilingual customer service representatives to book your Sea Lion Discovery experience today!

For more photos check out our Dolphin Discovery Cozumel Flickr page. Join us on Facebook at our Dolphin Discovery Fan Page and share your experiences and photos with us!

All about Sea Lions

// April 23rd, 2009 // View Comments // Sea Life

Sea Lion in Puerto Aventuras, Cancún México

The sea lions are part of the pinnipeds family, carnivourous mammals adapted to sea life. They live in the South American coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They are divided into three families, the Otariinae (sea lions and fur seals), Phocidae (earless seals) and Odobenidae (walruses).

Their diet consists of fish, squid, penguin and other marine birds. In the circle of life, they are part of the killer whale and shark diet. They eat between 15 and 25 kgs of food per day. Males can weight up to 300 kg (double than females) and can be up to 2.5 meters long. They live in groups of 15, normally formed by one male and its harem.

Young males are black and adults are dark brownish with a red-fur layer on their neck giving them their name of “lion”.

The three main differences between sea lions and seals are:

· Sea lions have external ears, seals have only fur-covered internal ears behind their snout.

· Sea lions have nails on their back fins to scratch themselves, seals don’t have any.

· Sea lions stand on their back fins to walk, seals crawl or roll.

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