Floating on their backs and saying, Urr.

Posted on by Live & Learn

sea-lion-close-up

I was catching on to sea lions. Walk into the water. Instantly sea lions surround you, even if none has been in sight. To say that they come to play with you is not especially anthropomorphic. Animals play. The bull sea lions are off patrolling their territorial shores; these are the cows and young, which range freely. A five-foot sea lion peers intently into your face, then urges her muzzle gently against your underwater mask and searches your eyes without blinking. Next she rolls upside down and slides along the length of your floating body, rolls again, and casts a long glance back at your eyes. You are, I believe, supposed to follow, and think up something clever in return. You can play games with sea lions in the water using shells or bits of leaf, if you are willing. You can spin on your vertical axis and a sea lion will swim circles around you, keeping her face always six inches from yours, as though she were tethered. You can make a game of touching their back flippers, say, and the sea lions will understand at once; somersaulting conveniently before your clumsy hands, they will give you an excellent field of back flippers. And when you leave the water, they follow. They don’t want you to go. They porpoise to the shore, popping their heads up when they lose you and casting about, then speeding to your side and emitting a choked series of vocal notes. If you won’t relent, they disappear, barking; but if you sit on the beach with so much as a foot in the water, two or three will station with you, floating on their backs and saying, Urr.

~ Annie Dillard, “Life on the Rocks: The Galapagos.” Teaching a Stone to Talk.

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28 thoughts on “Floating on their backs and saying, Urr.”

  2. Read it, pal, and loved it. The Galápagos Islands are on my “bucket list.” Especially loved this passage…” You pass among them as though you were wind, spindrift, sunlight, leaves. The songbirds are tame.”

    1. WLS…and adding – I’m seduced by their capacity to play, and I mean that literally. There is little that I find more attractive than the invitation to giggle and say ‘hi’ to the kid in me and create a vortex in the water. What a magic moment this describes!! And the picture – she brings it again on this frigid morning…”AWWWWWWWWWW baby”

  7. The closest I’ve ever gotten to sea lions (must get to the Galapagos!) is at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. They loll around, sun bathe, play with and irritate each other; I could have stood there for hours watching them. And those eyes are so compelling.

    1. Oh Come on. You are sitting in the restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf and you consider that swimming with the Sea Lions? Wow. I had you playing way bigger than that.

  10. I love the sense of play!! This line….this

    “You are, I believe, supposed to follow, and think up something clever in return.”

    Not only do they play, but it’s like they come and ask, ‘can David come out to play today?’

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