Foreign media are concerned that Canadian sea lions are surrounded by killer whales. How difficult are their living conditions?

On the east coast of vancouver island, a group of killer whales surrounded the panicked sea lions, and they gathered together to protect themselves. This spectacular confrontation took place at a distance of 100 meters from the coast, with about 8 killer whales. Sea lions surrounded by hunters put their heads out of the water and looked at these killer whales. Wayne Duke, a wildlife photographer, captured this amazing scene.

In terms of size and strength, sea lions are no match for killer whales. When you meet a killer whale, you can only rely on team strength to defend your own safety.

Black whale is a large toothed whale, with a body length of 8- 10 m and a weight of about 9 tons. There are 10- 12 conical teeth in each tooth row of the maxilla and mandible. Long and narrow mouth, sharp teeth, fierce temperament, carnivore, good at attacking prey, is the natural enemy of penguins, dolphins, seals and other animals. Sometimes they attack other whales, even great white sharks, which is called the overlord of the sea.

In terms of size, killer whales are killer whales. They are very long and heavy, and they are very effective in water. There are basically no natural enemies. Black whales have become the overlord in the ocean by virtue of their own size advantages, and few creatures can kill killer whales.

It is precisely because of the size advantage of killer whales that the food chain of killer whales is often full of marine life, accompanied by large marine life such as sharks.

Compared with killer whales, sea lions are indeed in a very weak position. Sea lions are generally 3 10-350cm long and weigh only about 1000kg. Adult male sea lions can weigh more than 1000 kg, but compared with the 9-ton killer whale, sea lions really have no fighting capacity.

In order to improve combat effectiveness, sea lions often carry out group activities in the sea. On land, it can form a large group of more than a thousand heads, and at sea, it is mostly a small group of 1 head or more than a dozen heads.

Sea lions are gentle and basically do not take the initiative to start a fight. Sea lions generally live on land near the sea, so they are killed by killer whales when hunting in the ocean.

Sea lions have short forepaws and poor eyesight, but their hearing and smell are developed, so their physical limitations make them have no strong hands to resist external attacks.

Black whales are huge, and natural killer whales have strong biting power. They can instantly catch food and firmly bite the sea lion's body in their mouth. The killer whale's instantaneous bite force is as high as tens of tons, which can instantly tear the prey's body.

Therefore, sea lions go deep into the ocean to prey, and sea lions themselves become the food targets of killer whales. Groups of sea lions can use the combined strength of the team to help their companions who are alone, and can also resist the attack of killer whales to some extent.