SEA LION AT ST. CLAIR

Evening Star, Issue 22147, 30 September 1935, Page 11

SEA LION AT ST. CLAIR

AN ATTRACTION FOR VISITORS The sea lion which comes ashore ,at. St; Clair almost daily is attracting hundreds-of-visitors to the beach. Yesterday it spent the greater part of the day on the children’s playground, a large crowd in which youngsters predominated constantly , swarming close around him. Quite tame, he allowed the children to stroke his fur coat and took little heed of their attentions as he apparently dozed in the sun, raising his head only now and again and moving his flappers. Early in the afternoon he was the centre of attraction of a very large crowd, but at about 4 o’clock he heard the call of the ocean and wandered down to the breakers to swim out to sea, probably in search of fish for a repast. There is one feature of the visit ol the sea lion to which attention should be drawn. Out of a mistaken sense, of kindness people have been feeding him with food which is entirely' foreign to his species and which has had the effect of making him vomit when he comes ashore. With visitors in large numbers on the beach such a state of affairs is not desirable, and on a warm clay certainly does not improve the amenities of the place. With plenty of fish available in the sea and marine growth close at hand, the natural food of the sea lion, he is quite capable of attending to his own wants, and people would he well advised to give him nothing at all. It has also been regretable to see several men use their boots on the animal, an action unwarrantably cruel. The’children generally regard the visitor as a pet, but some of them would be well advised by their elders not to tease him too much.