Expert: Steve Summers - 6/4/2011

Question
There's a video that's been making the rounds for the last few months, with the public swooning over how adorable it is (it shows a touristy-looking woman interacting closely with a seal (or sea lion, perhaps). It worries me, because I suspect it's dangerous to let an animal like this get so close, but anyone I mention this to scoffs at me. Any thoughts?

http://vimeo.com/18479035

Thanks.

Answer
Hi Jontathan,

I don't know who you've been mentioning it to, and I don't mean to insult any of your friends and family, but they must be incredibly ignorant. I think a couple people on that web site mentioned all the bacteria on the beach from the seal dung, as well as the bacteria in the seal's mouth. (They are elephant seals, by the way).

Germs notwithstanding, I think it was still incredibly stupid. That was a juvenile male, and if a full-grown bull had taken exception for any reason, that video could have been a viral documentation for a Darwin Award. Or if there was a herd that got spooked and made a run for the water. Even though this video was shot in South America, we have elephant seals here in California. And there have been documented instances of people getting caught in the middle of a stampede for the water, or in the wrong place when a couple bulls decided to fight.

Overall opinion: Stupid and quite dangerous. It turned out well this time, but could have turned out very bad.

Stick to your guns. I'm with you on this one. They're called wild animals for a reason.