Endangered
Carnivore Week (the only pastel)
These sea lions are endemic to Australia as the name would have you believe. They have the longest gestation period of any pinniped but I cannot figure out for sure what the length actually is. I found some sites saying 11 months all the way up to some sites that said 18 months. They also have one of the longest if not the longest length of time for a pinniped nursing their young. If they do not get pregnant the first chance they can, they continue nursing their pup and instead of the 15-18 month time for weaning, they may go up to 23 months! It is thought that the extended nursing period may be part of why only 50-60% of pups survive their first year. Their biggest problem is that they haven't recovered from all the over hunting of the 18th and 19th centuries. Unfortunately they are still killed, sometimes as by-catch. They also have to deal with becoming entangled in pollution which can cause them to drown or be unable to feed. In the wild they live around 12 years and in captivity they live up to 24 years.
My bff Ladybug has her birthday tomorrow. I have been working on her present for quite a while. I need to go finish that up though, so this is going to be a short post. I had a good bit of information about the animal so the blog post is still long enough I think. I doubt you will mind that I'm not rambling on too much here. I am going to be taking her present and some coffee to her. We will hopefully be able to hang out outside near her fountain, but it may be rainy (though I would desperately like rain galore) so we'll see.