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Thursday, September 3, 2026 11:25PM<\/p>\n
A massive Steller sea lion drew crowds at San Francisco’s Pier 39 on Thursday, sparking a wave of speculation: is “Chonkers” finally back?<\/p>\n
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A massive Steller sea lion drew crowds at San Francisco’s Pier 39 on Thursday afternoon, sparking a wave of speculation: is the internet-famous “Chonkers” finally back?<\/p>\n
The giant sea lion – nicknamed Chonkers – originally took social media by storm after taking over the docks back in April.<\/p>\n
While Pier 39 officials confirmed to ABC7 Eyewitness News that this afternoon’s visitor is indeed a Steller sea lion, they have not yet confirmed if it’s Chonkers.<\/p>\n
MORE: ‘Chonkers,’ the giant sea lion stealing hearts at San Francisco’s Pier 39<\/a><\/p>\n Steller sea lions are rare, majestic visitors to the bay.<\/p>\n If you are trying to spot the difference between them from the standard sea lion, look for these traits:<\/p>\n Massive size: Steller sea lions can reach up to 11 feet in length and weigh as much as 2,500 pounds. Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday, September 3, 2026 11:25PM A massive Steller sea lion drew crowds at San Francisco’s Pier 39 on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[178853,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-452679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-178853","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Bear head vs. dog head: Steller sea lions have distinct, bear-shaped heads, whereas California sea lions sport narrower, dog-shaped heads.![\"Now](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788478113_141_11518842_247-NOWSTREAMING_1280x720.png\"\/)
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