California Sea Lion grooming
Zalophus californianus
California Sea Lion · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A California Sea Lion on the rocks at La Jolla, a rear flipper reaching up to scratch. This coast is the species' home range, from British Columbia to Mexico, and the colony here hauls out on the rocks and beaches within yards of the town.
Sea lions are unusually flexible for a marine mammal because, unlike true seals, they can rotate their hind flippers forward underneath the body, which is also what lets them walk, or at least shuffle, on land. That same flexibility makes routine grooming look almost acrobatic.
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