Sea lions treat their young boys different

link Sharna Johnson

In search of ponies

In the first months and years, young animals go forward with verve for life, bounding with energy as they explore and play.

As time goes by, they venture further and further, still tethered to their mothers by an invisible line, yet barreling into life in ways that help to prepare them for the challenges of adulthood that loom around the corner.

It is during this time they begin transitioning into self-sufficiency, learning to forage or hunt as supplements to the care of their mother.

Usually, this is one of the few times in their lives that gender is virtually nonexistent — the boys and the girls running, tumbling and adventuring side-by-side in an indistinguishable blur of youthful exuberance.

However, even at this early juncture, gender differences can begin to surface, especially for sea lions.

In fact, juvenile male sea lions are distinctly different from their female counterparts — different enough to attract the attention of scientists, who noticed young male sea lions tend to do a lot of lying around and stay as close to their mothers as possible.

Tracking more than 90 juvenile sea lions between 1 and 2 years old for up to three weeks with recording devices, a team of German researchers set out to learn just how different the boys and girls really were, and they weren’t disappointed.

When the data came in, it showed the more active and adventurous juvenile sea lions proved to be females.

During the period they were monitored, the young females spent large amounts of time venturing out to sea, sometimes traveling almost 20 miles from home; and while exploring, they were diving, sometimes more than 50 times in a day.

By comparison, the males rarely strayed out of eyesight from home, their farthest travels measured about 300 yards, and while a few boys did dive on occasion, they averaged only seven dives per day.

Researchers also found the activities of the females weren’t strictly reserved to play and adventure, but that the young ladies were actively hunting and sustaining their own diets by consuming more fish than their mothers’ milk.

The boys, on the other hand, stayed dependent on their mothers.

As if in mutual agreement, young sea lions appear to develop their life skills according to gender from the moment they are capable of independence — girls quickly becoming self sufficient, while mothers focus their time and resources on their sons.

Researchers surmised that deeper than personality differences in respective gender roles there has to be a reason for the drastic difference in behavior between the boys and girls.

Answering to the biological call to perpetuate the species, sea lions are most likely hedging their reproductive bets by investing the majority of their energy and resources in the males of the species.

And the males will have their work cut out for them soon enough.

Capable of fathering up to four young per year, males are the greater contributors to sea lion numbers, compared to one offspring per female each year. As a result, scientists believe the species has most likely adapted to impart the majority of its resources on the males, giving them the initial boost they need to go forth and propagate.

So while other species raise their males to fight, defend and hunt, sea lion boys are being prepared for a slightly different task — and with an entire species of females codling their males, ironically, to make them more … male … sea lions might make it a tad less uncool to hold onto that apron string just a little longer.

Sharna Johnson is a writer who is always searching for ponies. You can reach her at:

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