WONDERS OF THE WILD

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1019, 7 January 1911, Page 13

WONDERS OF THE WILD

A FIERCE AMPHIBIAN. WHAKAHA: THE SEA-LION. (Bt Will Lawsox.) [All Eights Reserved.] The seas of the Southern Ocean rolled 'neath the bright October sunshine, a world of waters stretching .from horizon to horizon, a forbidding and uncharitablelooking world despite the softness of the blue sky and its fleecy clouds. And through this pathless tract of sea Whakaha, the great sea-lion, made his way, steering by instinct towards the Auckland Islands. For a moment his wet, sleek head, with its round eyes and mero suggestions of ears, broke clear of the sea, and the beast blew the spent air from, his lungs. Then lie inhaled a draught of air, and went down again, curving his back and diving much as a man-swimmer does. A couple of feet below the surface the sea-lion sped along at considerable speed, his broad flippers working like the blades of a screw propeller, but slicing the water at a more effective angle;. there was no loss of onergy at all. Day and night Whakaha maintained his steady course, and soon there , loomed on. the horizon the dim outlines of the islands. , Other sea-lions, bulls like Whakaha, but not. quite eo powerful or huge in build, were converging on tho same objective, each from a lonely course. And when they gathered in the bays and hauled their smooth, strong bodies up the beaches that have been the breeding-places of the herds of sea-lion from time ' immemorial, they formed a restless, roaring community of bull-seals in_ which the size and lungpower of Whakaha were greater than those of any other bull. The animals moved on land in ungainly fashion, using their flippers as legs on which they actually stood clear of tho sand. . They swayed their heads and necks in a curiious undulating way, as thev balanced on their inadequate limbs. All were of the same colour, u very dark grey, and they ranged in size from ten to twelve feet in length. Their fur was thick and on the neck and shoulders it was nearly three inches long. As they coughed and : roared along the beaches they ruffled this long fur up from time to time till it looked like bristles. ' Whakaha, full fourteen feet long and weighing half a ton, selected an area of sand at one end of a bay and there established himself. Whenever another bull approached he roared, menacingly, and if the intruder continued his approach, .Whakaha attacked and drove him off.. By j degrees from tho chaos of arriving bulls some. order was established, each one'having a section of beach, small or large according to his fighting powers.. J. he -female sea-lions, sometimes called sea-bear or tiger seals, had not yet come to land. The bulls had been ashore sorao days before the first one came. She was , a sinuous as a: panther, ana her fur was of a .bright silver colour all spotted with black. She was not more than seven feet long, and she had no ruff of fur about her neck. Her passage through the water was a delight to witness. The bulls all saw her coming, and roared their serenades across the tide £ tSi'i ? orh A ps , 1$ -was-the loud voice whakaha that'drew her or maybe it EM Ii? aw , of .natural selection .that took this handsome covr to the strongest ' most valiant ball. Towards Whakaha's domain she swam, and.there was a general movement in that direction by the neighbouring bulls. A's she raised her shining form from the sea and began to lunge ungracefully up the beach-slope another bull rushed down to seize her. Whakaha in one swift pounce threw tho i°" s rage and floundering on the wet sand. Then he rushed to the cow and took-the loose skin his mouth.. He had 1 t)c_iinto(lra'fller unceremoniously up-the beach when the bull he upset attacked agaiu seizing tho cow by the neck also.' For IVI ? IC I. ? tu K- of - war Trent on. But W hakaha s anger overcome his caution. Re easing his hold he attacked the other bull With fury, bitmg' and rolling liis opponent over and over. When he'aros* victorious, two other bulls were fightin" over the prize, and Whakaha had to overcome them separately ere he had establishd a claim to tho. silver-spotted cow. She, for .her part, appeared to regard tho ordeal of' her arrival with remarkable equanimity, and lav basking in tho hot sun in the domain of Whakaha, while the arrival of more females,-wheso colour for the-most part was rich golden bufr, threw the beaches into up» roar. By superior prowess Whakaha won twelvo of tho sleekest'cows, and as the weeks pa9sed he and 'his hareni ranged beyond-tho limits of the beach into the stunted bush and' long grass, where their ceaseless lowing and roaring sounded liko the noise of a herd of cattle. 1 hough his harem wandered far from tho sen, each seeking a loir in which her young one might be born. Whakaha preferred to lie for hours on the sunbaked beach, only retreating to the long grass at evening. In February the young sea-lions were born, bo it. remembered, in most cases a quarter to half a mile away inland, and in many . cases a milo inland. Surely strange, birth-places for sea animals that in their wanderings travel over half a hemisphcro of water. And more remarkable still, the young onos hated the water. Tho silver-spotted cow gavo birth to hor calf half a mile from the water, and she spent a week of coaxing and beating and pushing before the youngster at last plunged into tho sea. Doubtless away back ■ in the history of things the sea-lion was an ■ animal of the land; with legs - instead of flippers. But pressure of enemies ashore drove him on to the beaches and into tho shallow waters, and by degrees he became a wanderer in the deep seas. Yet instinct still bids those beasts go on land at breedingtime, since the young, being mammals, must first breathe air that ir free, of spray. For threo months the cows suckled their young. The hei'd ' spent their . time in tho water and ~on tho beaches during the day.. At uight they returned to land to, sleep in tho long grass, or in the bush, going, back to tho' sea at break of day. Once, in the early dawn,, as Whakaha and l.is herd were moving seawards, a man came walking along the beach. Whakaha bellowed a challenge and advanced towards him. The man. came straight on. Then Whakaha, his size enormous in tho halflight leaped forward, and at a gait that was a lumbering gallop, for the sea-lion can move his hind flippers forwards . as Well as backwards, pursued tho intruder who had turned from this rather fierce attack. They raced down the boach-for a good distance and Whakaha had almost caught him when tho man picked up a thick stick ■ and' struck two rapid blows on tho beast's nose. Half-stunned and mad with pain Whakaha floundered •into the sea where his herd presently joined him. , Early in April most.,of ..the, bulls left the bays, travelling--[at; first l ill'-bunches.'' but gradually; separating {until leacli was a solitary beast in a world ed waters. Arid there "i* a reason iii this lonely life of tho seals. When tho herds meet at. breeding time, the fish all leave tho neighbourhood, and during -the period ashore tho sea-lions livo but sparingly. But, swimming alone and travelline far, there is an unlimited larder of fish always at hand. Whakaha, on his first night at sea came upon a number of penguins that were floating and swimming easily. Keeping below water Whakaha approachod very quietlv, and suddenly a penguin disappeared from the centre of the sedate company. Instantly, .there was alarm, , and tho. birds dived. Hastily bolting tho captured bird Whakalia, suddenly awakened to the demands of an'appetite that had been suppressed too long, went after them at top speed.- Morning found him sleeping calmly oh the surface of the sea a well-fed, sleek-skinned amphibian, full of the lust of living, with no enemy save man, and subject to little danger save tho remote one of being snapped at by a stray shark or killer, while sluinbering on tho sea.