A lady going for a swim in Canada had a “as soon as in a lifetime” wildlife encounter when she seen a sea lion combating an octopus, a video exhibits.
Lindsay Bryant noticed the sea lion splashing off the coast of Nanaimo earlier than a swim on Nov. 16, she informed the Canadian Broadcasting Company. She swims usually within the space and sometimes encounters sea lions, however one thing appeared totally different this time.
“I really thought the ocean lion was tangled in one thing,” Bryant wrote in a Nov. 16 Facebook post. “For a minute, he went right into a lifeless float.”
“I began recording as a result of I couldn’t work out why the ocean lion was struggling so laborious with what I believed was a fish,” she wrote in another Facebook post.
However when Bryant obtained house and rewatched the video, she realized the ocean lion wasn’t consuming a fish in any respect.
It was battling with an octopus.
Bryant shared the video on YouTube. The three-minute-long video exhibits a sea lion thrashing about with an octopus. The ocean lion flings the octopus forcefully away, then dives underwater and repeats the motion. Seagulls circle overhead.
“The octopus seems to have put up a very good struggle! The ocean lion seemed to be struggling laborious at just a few factors,” Bryant mentioned.
Andrew Trites, a marine mammal researcher on the College of British Columbia, informed the Canadian Broadcasting Company that sea lions generally eat octopuses.
“The problem for a sea lion is to swallow an octopus with out the octopus utilizing its eight arms to seize onto the ocean lion’s head whereas it’s being swallowed complete,” Trites informed the outlet. “The ocean lion would suffocate.”
To keep away from this, Trites mentioned that sea lions “chew down onto one arm at a time and fling the octopus’ physique with all its pressure to tear off an arm to swallow complete. They do it on the floor as a result of they will get extra torque in air than they will underwater.”
Bryant mentioned the encounter made for “an attention-grabbing swim.”
“I’m guessing this will probably be a as soon as in a lifetime sighting for me,” she wrote on Fb.
Bryant couldn’t inform who gained the struggle. The video ends with the ocean lion nonetheless swimming and thrashing.
Bryant didn’t instantly reply to McClatchy Information’ Nov. 20 request for remark.
Nanaimo is on Vancouver Island, about 50 miles west of Vancouver and about 200 miles northwest of Seattle.
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