A viral video of a sea lion grabbing a little girl by her dress and pulling her into the water at a wharf in Richmond, British Columbia, should serve as a lesson to everyone not to feed wild animals, say experts.
“You wouldn’t go up to a grizzly bear in the bush and hand him a ham sandwich, so you shouldn’t be handing a thousand-pound wild mammal in the water slices of bread,” Robert Kiesman, chair of the Steveston Harbour Authority, told CBC News.
“And you certainly shouldn’t be letting your little girl sit on the edge of the dock with her dress hanging down after the sea lion has already snapped at her once. Just totally reckless behaviour.”
The YouTube video, which has been viewed more than nine million times since it was posted on Saturday by local resident Michael Fujiwara, shows a male California sea lion grabbing the little girl by her dress seconds after she sat down on the edge of the wharf and snatching her into the water.
Another man from the group of what appears to be Mandarin-speaking tourists jumps immediately in the murky water and lifts her out.
Both the little girl and the man who saved her appear to be unharmed by the animal.
California sea lions have a diet that consists mostly of fish but they also scavenge for food thrown to them by humans. Experts speculate that the sea lion, who earlier in the video appears to be eating pieces of bread thrown in the water, may have simply mistaken the girl’s dress for a piece of food.
Kiesman said there are several signs posted at the popular tourist destination warning people not to feed the sea mammals that frequent the area.
The harbour authority has posted more signs along the dock where the girl was attacked Saturday, Kiesman told CBC News.
New signs going up in #steveston #sealions #warning pic.twitter.com/J8c4V2djrm
— Meera Bains (@Meerakati) 21 May 2017
However, all the signs seem to be in English with no visual elements, and it’s unclear whether foreign tourists who visit the area can necessarily understand what’s written on them.
The signs also warn that sea lion bites “can cause very serious infections that may lead to amputation of a limb or even death.”
Danielle Hyson, a senior marine mammal trainer at the Vancouver Aquarium, told CBC News that if the girl suffered a puncture or broken skin from the bite, her family should contact the aquarium for advice on how to treat the wounds.
Bacteria in sea lions’ mouths can cause a specific infection, which Hyson said would need specific treatment. She said the aquarium could provide advice to a doctor about treatment.
With files from CBC News reporters Maryse Zeidler and Chad Pawson
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