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Seeing sea lions

A picture of sea lions in San Francisco's Pier 39 was captured by a satellite camera and uploaded in GoogleEarth. I came across this image as soon as a high resolution image was available (about the same time the picture of elephants walking across the savannah in Africa were observed by avid GoogleEarth users). Naturally, I was excited to see the sea lions up close as soon as details of my trip to San Francisco were finalised.

My first, and unexpected, encounter with sea lions in the US was actually at the Lincoln Park Zoo. An aquarium contained quite a few of these swimmers, and while observing them, the discussion on what the difference was between a seal and a sea lion started in the family. Everyone was stumped by the question; leaving that unanswered, we went into the indoor observation section of the seal aquarium. Little did we know that behind me was the answer:


It just shows that we need to keep our eyes peeled for the answer... we were in a zoo, after all!

A few days later, Joycelyn and I ended the day at the Embarcadero, and since I wasn't able to see the sea lions there in 2005, I could hardly wait too see them this time. There was a whole lot of them there!

It still amazes me that these animals adapted to the presence of humans, and actually thrive in the area. Right behind their sanctuary is one of the most expensive places to live in. And to think that these are not caged in zoos! I can't help but think about the giraffes at Taronga Zoo... they have some of the most expensive pieces of real estate as well (in Sydney, which have a beautiful view across the water of the Sydney Opera House on the left, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the right).

I was able to take a decent shot of the huge population of sea lions thanks to my new Nikon D60 DSLR (thanks, Mommy and Daddy! Now I just have to learn how to shoot with a DSLR). If I were using my point-and-shoot digital camera, the sea lions would not be as clear.
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