San Francisco park rangers were met with an unexpected sight during their predawn patrol Thursday: a small sea lion, lounging on the sidewalk near homes in the Outer Sunset.<\/p>\n
The sea lion appeared to have \u201cwandered out of the ocean and onto the street,\u201d pausing to rest against a utility pole at the corner of 48th Avenue and Irving Street, the San Francisco Park and Recreation Department said on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pole is near residential homes about a block from Ocean Beach. Authorities said it was a California sea lion, the same breed that frequents Pier 39.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With help from San Francisco Police Department officers and a volunteer from the Marine Mammal Center, the pup \u2014 now named Irving, for the location where it was found \u2014 was corralled into a crate borrowed from the nearby Ocean Avenue Veterinary Hospital. After a stop at the ranger station, Irving was chauffeured to the Marine Mammal Center\u2019s hospital in Sausalito by midmorning Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s as of yet unknown why Irving was away from their usual habitat, the California sea lion pup will receive an admission exam from our veterinary experts this week to evaluate their condition and any underlying ailments,\u201d Marine Mammal Center spokesperson\u00a0Giancarlo Rulli said.<\/p>\n
That exam will help determine Irving\u2019s sex and age.\u00a0Rulli estimated that Irving was about 10 months old, since the peak season for sea lions to be born is around June. Baby sea lions typically stay with their mothers for about a year as they nurse and learn survival skills, like how to swim and hunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sea lions that are out on their own before then can struggle to find food due to their underdeveloped foraging skills,\u00a0Rulli said, sometimes making them vulnerable to health issues. The Marine Mammal Center had no further information on Irving\u2019s health Thursday evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful for the quick action, dedication and support from our partners that allowed this young animal to be rescued in the wee hours of the morning, giving Irving a second chance,\u201d\u00a0Rulli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco park rangers were met with an unexpected sight during their predawn patrol Thursday: a small sea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3805,2356,5284,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-588998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-san-francisco","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}