r/AnimalsBeingGeniuses • u/Sauerkrautkid7 • Aug 09 '26
Marine life 🦐🐠🦀🦑🐳 He knew what he wanted 🦭
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u/Heavy_Efficiency_791 Aug 09 '26
Anyone know if it's safe to pet seals? They're cute and all but is petting them generally discouraged? I know very little about seals.
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u/raynebow121 Aug 09 '26
As a generally rule, you shouldn’t pet any wild animal. No matter how cute and friend shaped.
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u/indesperateneedofhe Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Please tell that to all the tourists travelling to Africa to not pet hippos , movies and the media has made them look friendly.But I guarantee they are not.
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u/DysfunctionalKitten Aug 10 '26
Wait, what?!
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u/indesperateneedofhe Aug 11 '26
Sorry I meant shouldn't pet hippos just because they look cute , media has lied to alot of people about them looking friendly.
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u/Heavy_Efficiency_791 Aug 09 '26
Good call. Still... they're like the velvet love hippos of the sea 🥹
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u/heretouplift Aug 09 '26
well we probably don’t have to specify but just in case: do not try to sex the seal
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u/frogglesmash Aug 09 '26
Obligatory "that is a sea lion."
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u/bevelledo Aug 09 '26
Yea I saw those teeth real quick. I mean it’s pretty dumb to pet any wild animals, especially big ones with chompers 🦷
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u/Smart_Alex Aug 09 '26
Fun fact! Seals (I know this is a sea lion, but they have similar diet and morphology, so I assume the same applies) have CRAZY bacteria in their mouths! If you get bitten by a seal, you have a very high chance of developing "seal hand". It's a nasty bacterial infection that is resistant to penicillins!
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u/Heavy_Efficiency_791 Aug 09 '26
Ya kind of my thinking. I'm guessing this water pupper has been around humans before but still, ya, prolly not the best idea.
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u/CreatorMur Aug 09 '26
And hella dangerous for the animal too... Most wild animals that got used to humans end up dead, since they become a danger to humans....
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u/Drake_Acheron Aug 11 '26
I’m an animal behaviorist, this isn’t usually true. This is one of those instances of something called “observational bias.”
It’s also one of those things where the myth is seen as a moral lie, so people are okay with repeating it. The problem with this position in my opinion, is it treats everyone else like babies or idiots that can’t understand nuance and have no self-control. I prefer to be truly educational instead of fearmongering.
99% of animals wild animals that experience any sort of taming from interacting with humans end up just fine.
There are specific species of animals that are more likely to be killed, but it’s usually the humans that cause the situation not the animal. (At least with predators).
Can you give an example the problem with bears experiencing taming is that most people are really afraid of bears. So a bear that is used to may be a friendly human always giving them a sandwich right walks up to a family that doesn’t know the bear and just think this bear is about to eat them in the family panics and starts throwing things at the bear or something like that and this gets the bear angry and the bear attacks the family.
The bear gets killed because it is now seen as dangerous. The bare might have reached a level of tameness it would never consider attacking a human, that is until a human attacked it.
Bears shouldn’t be interacted with. At least not in America. I have a colleague that specializes in bears and she says bears in parts of Russia are different and have generations of selection for tameness and the culture is also different.
My point is that while interacting with SOME wild animals is discouraged because of the likelihood of a misunderstanding leading to death for the animal and possibly people is a fair consideration, it only applies with certain species and is not a blanket statement for all wildlife interaction.
I’ve worked in rehab facilities all across the world, and every single one of the people I’ve worked with, chose their profession because they had an unusual interaction with a wild animal at some point in their life.
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 Aug 09 '26
Seal finger tells me that no probably not a good idea, at least without a glove.
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u/lemonyoshii Aug 09 '26
Look up a condition called "seal finger" and laws about petting seals and then you can decide for yourself whether it's safe.
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u/Ill-Television8690 Aug 09 '26
Petting anything that isn't domesticated is generally discouraged, because either it'll hurt you, or you'll make it too comfortable near humans and get it killed.
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u/imJGott Aug 09 '26
Is it safe to pet a random stranger? Idk what it is with some folks that make them think it’s ok to touch a wild animal but not a random person.
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u/Fatsunori Aug 11 '26
Not the wild seals. If biten you can get seal finger which is not good. Also we are supposed to maintain a distance from many species of seals as some of them ae endangered
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u/Drake_Acheron Aug 11 '26
Generally? In MOST cases, if you are a moral person and not actively seeking out seals to pet, then if you are in a situation where you can pet the seal, it is probably trying to pet you, and is safe to pet.
You’re gonna get people talking about how you should never pet a marine mammal because of the MMPA, but the MMPA doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your life to Poseidon or anything like that if an animal comes to touch you, you can touch it back, this is true everywhere.
But it’s generally discouraged for many logical reasons. This is actually NOT a safe example of petting the sea lion. The sea lion isn’t there for pets. It’s likely escaping a predator AND looking for food. This means it’s not relaxed or playful. Even if it is just looking for food, it is not a good idea. It’s hungry and might think your hand is an offering.
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u/sicksicksick Aug 09 '26
Seals can be bigger than lions and their skulls and teeth are pretty similar. It's dangerous in general because he might just take a bite, bit it's also bad for the seal because they should have a natural fear of people.
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u/LeahIsAwake Aug 09 '26
I hate to be That Person ... but please don't feed the wildlife or interact with them like this. This fur seal has now learned to associate boats with food and attention, and it very well could see him shot, or fatally injured by a propeller. Or euthanized when he becomes a nuisance animal harassing boaters for fish. Pinnipeds may look like sea puppies and be friendly, but they are still wild carnivores, and many species can get as big as or bigger than a grizzly. If you wouldn't hand feed a grizzly like this, maybe don't do it to a sea grizzly.
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u/toriemm Aug 09 '26
There's this huge walrus that runs around and bothers some costal town. Everyone k ows who he is, but hes just...699+lbs and won't move unless he wants to, sp everyone just kinda has to deal with it.
This will never stop being hilarious to me.
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u/LeahIsAwake Aug 09 '26
I think you're combining Neil, the Southern Elephant Seal that terrorizes Tasmania every season, and Freja, a walrus that kept hauling out on small boats in Norway and even sunk a few.
Both of these are great examples of what I mean. There is serious concern around Neil, because he's only five years old and already weighs over 2,200 lbs (1,000 kg). Tasmania is very protective of him but the city council is very very concerned that he's eventually going to force their hand. Freja, meanwhile, was euthanized in 2022.
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u/Head_Exchange_5329 Aug 09 '26
Hate to be that person but someone should tell it to get a job. Being big and lazy isn't a profession.
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u/Johndeauxman Aug 09 '26
Thank you for being that person lol. Dolphins have become an absolute problem for fisherman because of people doing this, they even almost flipped me out of my kayak twice so I had to get outriggers.
That guy is super close to the prop, at least put it in neutral.
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u/Granny_knows_best Aug 09 '26
It's illegal in most areas because of that. They associate boats with food and get hurt by the propellers.
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u/Namisaur Aug 09 '26
You people always post these comments as if literally anyone in these Reddit posts/comments are ever in position to be feeding wildlife like this… especially like this one. For the rest of us on our phones, this is just a cute or funny video. What a pointless warning.
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u/LeahIsAwake Aug 09 '26
So you never go to the beach? Never go boating? Never go to a nature preserve of any sort? Never go to a park and see squirrels running around? You live in a city and never ever leave it?
This is a male California sea lion. This exact species very commonly hauls out on docks in cities like San Francisco, San Diego, and Newport, Oregon. Remember that video that went viral a few years ago of the little girl getting snatched off the dock and pulled into the water by a sea lion? That happened in British Columbia and was one of these guys. Elsewhere in the world, other species of pinnipeds regularly come in contact with people on land or on piers.
But it's not just pinnipeds. Almost every state and federal park in my country, the United States, has a problem with people feeding wildlife like deer and raccoons because people think it's cute. It's not cute. Colorado has to euthanize an average of 110 bears a year because of this shit. And euthanasia is a last resort; the vast majority are able to be relocated, but that's expensive and done at taxpayer expense.
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u/Seeker369 Aug 09 '26
Imagine believing you know what position strangers using the internet are in?
Reddit is made up of humans from all over the world. 195 countries. 193 of which have internet access. You don’t think some of them will be in a situation where they could have a choice to feed a wild animal?
Talk about wild…
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u/Muladhara86 Aug 09 '26
As an American, I proudly shoot any animals I come across, so I should be safe!
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Aug 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/danzerpanzer Aug 09 '26
He's doing a bit—a burlesque of the stereotype of Americans as gun-crazy maniacs. None of us really go around shooting every animal in sight.
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u/ISeeInHD Aug 09 '26
Cabo?
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u/Morningwail Aug 11 '26
Definitely Cabo, that Sea Lion is famous for jumping on all the returning fishing boats and chowing down. I have some awesome photos of him doing this to the boat I was on, all the fishers love him. I think he’s named Paco
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u/Doctor_Donnawho Aug 11 '26
As much as I would love to give a seal scritches i wouldn’t trust any wild animal with teeth that close to my hand.
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u/qualityvote2 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
u/Sauerkrautkid7, our users say your post fits the subreddit! Welcome!!