Saturday, September 02, 2006

Photo Friday- silver

When I first saw this sealion at Marineland in Antibes, I thought it was a silver statue due to the water reflection. It was just preening and posing for the camera.

Sealions are Pinnipeds [which means fin feet] - as are walruses, fur seals and earless seals [true seals]
This one is a California sealion Zalophus californianus.

Sealions differ from seals in that they have small external ears and longer flippers that they can 'walk' with. You can see the small ear flap here.

True Seals have no external ear flaps and are also much clumsier on land than sealions - they have to wriggle along [galumph] mainly using their belly muscles and it takes a lot of effort. They are more adapted to life in the open sea than sealions, who tend to prefer coastal waters.

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5 comments:

natural attrill said...

What beautiful blues, is that the reflection from the water on sealion?
Penny.

Alison Ashwell said...

yes- the angle of the sun must have been just right to reflect it so well

Unknown said...

What stunning colours - and what a proud pose.

Ian T. said...

Alison, I'm particularly enjoying your wildlife photographs across the range - insects, birds, animals. I had to comment on this, because my post for IF this week is about fur seals, though in sad contrast to your pic.

angela said...

A magnificent photo. It looks as if he's posing for the photo.

PS Thanks for dropping by.
Angela