Some cool free animals images:
Food fight
Image by Konabish ~ Greg Bishop
All the sea lions in these photos are wild and totally free. Some may (understandably) take exception to creatures habituated to fishermens' scraps; but only the biggest and most aggressive seals usually grab the biggest and best 'left-overs'. These very active, hundreds-of-pounds pinnipeds require much more energy than scraps provide, and they rely chiefly on live fish and other ocean prey that they hunt and capture in the Pacific Ocean.
Though they're social animals that are seen all around populated shorelines, they will only breed and raise their young in areas in which they'll be mostly undisturbed by humans, et al; here in southern California it is the islands 30 miles and more offshore that provide near-perfect solitude. I've seen huge gatherings at our Islands, like Santa Barbara Island, one of our wild, beautiful Channel Islands.
They are best given plenty of leeway, as their bite is every bit as damaging (even worse) than that of a large dog. While I've scuba dived around them they have usually been inquisitive, even playful. But they can also become aggressive without much (if any) warning. They rightfully enjoy protective laws here, but some fishermen (and others) will still kill them if they threaten their catch.... or just out of cruelty.
