";s:4:"text";s:6201:" Lisette Reymer . Researchers say sea lions don't care enough about humans to want to slap one of us with an octopus. Off the coast of Kaikoura, where these kayakers were paddling, Harcourt says they're not scared of people at all. Niwa answers the riddle . I'd be very surprised," he says.But even though sea lions can be indifferent toward humans, it doesn't mean they can't be bugged by us, Reichmuth says. A sea lion navigates through a school of sardines in the waters off Mexico's Espiritu Santo island in 2015.The kayakers, she says, most likely paddled into an area where the sea lion was feeding, putting them in the line of fire. The seal was trying to stun the octopus, and mistook Mr Mulinder for a rock An unruly seal which shocked a kayaker by throwing an octopus in his face was trying to stun its prey before eating it, scientists have revealed.
A sea lion navigates through a school of sardines in the waters off Mexico's Espiritu Santo island in 2015. Although the octopus put up a good fight, Mr Mulinder said the seal came out on top. "Sea lions are playful animals, but that doesn't mean they're not disturbed by the presence of people," she says, especially when they are carrying out biologically important activities like foraging for food. It's easy to tell, they say, because New Zealand fur seals have very pointy noses and obvious whiskers compared with the blunt noses of New Zealand sea lions. "You see the animal surface a few times, so [the kayakers] probably were not where they should have been, maybe a little too close to feeding animals," she says.This makes her think that while the video is entertaining, it also evokes a larger issue: the encroachment of people into wildlife areas.Common courtesy for wildlife, she says, is to stay well away from the "threshold of response," which is when animals alter their behavior because of human presence.In the end, though, it's hard to know with certainty what the now world famous sea lion was doing with the octopus, or if its behavior was affected by the kayakers.Anytime someone witnesses a novel sea lion behavior, or the unexpected actions of any behaviorally flexible animal, Cook says, there's often speculation about why it might have done it. "They do like to fiddle with their food, and throwing an octopus around could be pretty fun," he says.Cook says he has witnessed sea lions in captivity playing with leftover food after finishing a meal. "I've had young fur seals climb up onto my kayak. Sea lions spend anywhere from nine months to two years with their mothers before venturing out on their own. Play now. Masuda shouts, as Mulinder shakes his head and looks back into the water. During that period, they are being fed milk by their mother and have a lot of free time, most of which they use to play. Video will play in . "There are always a lot of questions, and we make our best guess. He adds that fur seals do sometimes play with their food, as Cook describes. ‘I was like “Mate, what just happened?”‘ The double-whammy was captured on a GoPro off the coast of Kaikoura, New Zealand‘It was weird because it happened so fast but I could feel all the hard parts of the octopus on my face like ”dum dum dum”.’He winced and screamed as his peers erupted into laughter. Funny video: Seal slaps kayaker with octopus in the face. An unruly seal which shocked a kayaker by throwing an octopus in his face was trying to stun its prey before eating it, scientists have revealed.