California Sea Lions
Project by: Kaung Yang , Fnu (Sophia) Yunanda , Akayi Thein and Dr. Shari Bookstaff
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Zalophus Californianus
aka California Sea Lion
CA sea lions are in the Otariidae family, meaning they have ear flaps and large flippers used to walk on land.
Full Phylogeny
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Otariidae
Genus: Zalophus
Species: Californianus
Where Do They Live?
They live mainly along the coastline from British Columbia, Canada to Baja California in Central Mexico.
Lifespan + Food
They live about 20-30 years feeding on different types of fish and squids. The most common predators of CA sea lions are killer whales and white sharks.
Male Vs Female
Male California sea lions are more robust compared to females. Males weigh about 700-800 pounds and females weigh only about 220-240 pounds on average. At around five years of age, males develop a sagittal crest, a bony bump on top of their skull.
Mating
The male sea lion will come up to the sandy beach around May-August and try to claim their territory. The CA sea lions are polygamous and each male can have 10-30 females in each season. Females will soon comes up the beach and they are already pregnant with the pup from the last mating season. They then mate soon after giving birth to a pup. The mating season peaks around June or July.
Female CA Sea Lion with her pup
