(CNN) — Like many youngsters, Hannah Yeardley, a 17-year-old residing in Dunedin, New Zealand, babysits in her spare time. The solely distinction is that it isn’t kids she’s taking care of, it is sea lion pups.
From December by way of February, in the course of the breeding season and whereas the newborns are at their most weak, Yeardley wanders down the white sands of Long Beach on her weekends and faculty holidays, checking in on sea lion households nesting within the space. She’s volunteering for the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust, a corporation working to guard the endangered species.
Around the Otago peninsula on New Zealand’s south island, sea lions reside cheek by jowl with their human neighbors. Local residents are stepping in as “babysitters” to assist maintain the new child pups secure.
Her favourite sea lion is Zoe, a feminine of about the identical age as her, with a darkish patch across the eyes and a particular scallop form in her flipper.
“She’s simply turned 17,” says Yeardley, whose birthday was in March. “It’s very cool seeing her yearly, and happening that journey together with her, (watching her) having pups.”
It has been a bumper yr for sea lions on the Otago Peninsula, a finger of land that stands out from the town suburbs of Dunedin into the Pacific Ocean and is house to the most important sea lion inhabitants on mainland New Zealand, in keeping with the nation’s Department of Conservation. Twenty-one pups had been born, making it probably the most profitable breeding season for the endangered species in nearly 200 years.
Sea lions are returning to New Zealand’s mainland after being hunted to close extinction.
PAUL ELLIS/AFP through Getty Images
Babysitter Hannah Yeardley hopes that by taking care of New Zealand sea lion pups she will help the inhabitants develop.
Caitlin McGee/CNN
Sea lions flourished alongside New Zealand’s coasts till business looking, which started within the early nineteenth century and continued by way of to the mid twentieth century, introduced the animals near extinction. Remnant populations survived a whole bunch of miles south on sub-Antarctic islands, such because the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island, the place the vast majority of breeding nonetheless happens immediately.
Then, within the early Nineteen Nineties, a lone adventurous feminine ventured again to the mainland and gave start to a pup on St Clair seashore. She turned often known as “Mum” and a statue of her now sits proudly on the esplanade above St Clair.
“This one feminine was accountable for bringing again a inhabitants of sea lions to Otago,” says Jim Fyfe, biodiversity ranger for the coastal Otago district of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.
In a stroke of luck, Mum’s first three pups had been feminine, which obtained the inhabitants off to a very good begin, explains Fyfe. “By 2000, we had been having two or three pups being born, then by 2010, six to eight pups had been being born, and in the previous couple of years, we have had 18 to twenty. It seems like we’re on that little exponential curve on the backside of inhabitants progress,” he says.
But sea lions have returned to a really completely different habitat to that of 200 years in the past — roads, vehicles, motorbikes, people, canines and all kinds of potential hazards at the moment are prolific within the area. This presents large challenges in maintaining the inhabitants wholesome and completely satisfied.
Sea lions are smelly neighbors
Eager to discover a shelter away from grownup male sea lions — which weigh as much as a hefty 450 kilograms and have been recognized to trample pups whereas on the seek for a mate — moms usually head inland to nest, however this solely brings them nearer to human threats.
They’ve been discovered nesting in backyards, canine kennels, outbuildings and the native golf course, says Fyfe, generally inflicting bother with human neighbors. He recollects one younger feminine that spent round three months sleeping beneath a home, till the house owners obtained fed up and evicted her as a result of “the home obtained a bit smelly.”
“Their night-time habits of coming in at two o’clock within the morning and mooing for his or her pups could make them an annoying neighbor,” he provides.
But for all their unhealthy habits, sea lions are those in mortal hazard. This yr, a three-month-old sea lion pup was struck and killed by a automobile on an Otago Peninsula highway, and bike tracks had been not too long ago noticed beside a preferred “nursery” space the place many mom sea lions and their pups have settled.
The Department of Conservation and the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust, with its military of “babysitters” equivalent to Yeardley, attempt to handle these threats. The organizations maintain monitor of females and their pups, cordoning off areas the place they is likely to be nesting, and placing up indicators warning passersby and asking for all canines to be stored on a lead. Sometimes, if sea lions have chosen to nest in an uncovered space, Fyfe and his crew will create a easy shelter to assist defend the pups, and final yr, they closed a highway in Dunedin for a month to maintain a sea lion household secure.
“The seasonal breeding cycle is a vital level for (the ocean lions)” says Fyfe. “We ask for individuals’s endurance, it isn’t a everlasting factor.”
But as the ocean lion inhabitants continues to develop, this personalised service might turn out to be much less viable. Instead, Fyfe hopes know-how will present an answer. He was concerned in a analysis challenge, printed final yr, that makes use of algorithm-based fashions and GIS mapping to determine vital habitat and will assist rangers prioritize areas for cover.
“They’re not really going to chew you”
Ultimately, one of many easiest options for safeguarding sea lions from human threats is educating individuals on how to answer them.
“If individuals get too near sea lions once they’re energetic, the ocean lions have a bluff cost … and other people are inclined to form of activate their heels and run away,” says Fyfe. “Running is the improper factor to do. They’re not really going to chew you — 99 instances out of 100 they’d cease and sniff you. So simply try to keep calm and maintain strolling out of the realm.”
Fyfe hopes that as locals get used to the presence of sea lions on their seashores and round their properties, they’ll be taught to coexist. “People do not must be afraid, they don’t seem to be an aggressive animal,” he says. “They’re extra playful and curious.”
Fortunately, elevating consciousness and curiosity within the animal isn’t arduous. “They’re their very own greatest advertising and marketing instrument, (as a result of) on the entire, they’re tremendous cute,” he provides.