Like our cherished Assateague ponies, seals are large wild animals and can be extremely dangerous. They will bite – and serious infections can be transmitted to you or your pet. Seals are mammals, as are we.
Seal and sea lion bites in particular have a very high probability of infection. The importance of proper cleaning and disinfection cannot be overstated, even with apparently small wounds. All such wounds should to be monitored for signs of infection for at least seven to 10 days.
Seals are wild animals and will defend themselves if they feel threatened. While they can look harmless, leopard seals can swivel around very quickly from their resting position to attack and can inflict serious injuries to dogs or people.
Always let seals make the first move – let them approach you. Sit back, wait quietly and observe. Aim to stay calm and move slowly to avoid spooking the seals and provoking a startled response. Be confident that seals are usually gentle creatures unless they feel threatened.
But cute and cuddly as they seem, seals and sea lions will bite and “a healthy 200-to-300-pound sea lion has the (jaw) power of four Dobermans,” he said.
Seals have an appealing, perhaps adorable presence and appearance. Like the Assateague ponies, one can't help but want to get closer and even touch or feed them. But such human contact does more harm than good. Like our cherished Assateague ponies, seals are large wild animals and can be extremely dangerous.
How are seals protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act? It is against the law to touch, feed, or otherwise harass seals. Harassment occurs when your behavior changes their behavior.
Seals carry several types of bacteria that can be harmful to humans. If you are ever in doubt by the behaviour of a seal it is always best to get out of the water. Non-threatening, calm, slow but confident body language is the key to a safe seal encounter.
Seals appear to be appealing and friendly, which they are indeed. Most zoos and marine attractions showcase seals as trainable, intelligent, and friendly to humans.
As a rule of thumb, stay at least 50 yards (150 feet) from seals. A curious seal pup might approach on its own, but the mother is likely to be nearby, and may see your interaction as a threat. No selfies with seals!
Are seals a risk to humans? People should not approach fur seals. They are large, powerful animals and like any wild animal, they can react aggressively if they feel threatened. If they are left alone, they do not usually pose a threat to humans.
Leopard seals are the only seal species known to actively prey on other seals, taking pups of crabeater, Weddell, Ross, southern elephant and Antarctic fur seals.
Seals and dogs are both notoriously friendly, so it's little surprise that they'd become friends upon meeting. A recent video shows a curious seal and playful dog bonding over some shared beach playtime.
Sea lions are not typically dangerous but they might attack if they are ill, feel threatened, during breeding season, if they are desensitized to humans or if they are harassed. Frequently humans are at fault when wild animals attack. For sharks, they keep track of provoked vs unprovoked attacks.
The pups are adorable, are friendly and will approach humans, but touching a baby seal hurts the chances of it reuniting with its mother, Chandler said. He emphasized that people should feel free to take pictures from a distance, but to give the animal space and leave it alone.
Some seals, and particularly sea lions, can outswim and outmaneuver white sharks. Thus the sharks rely on ambush from below and behind, coming in at full speed, culminating with a violent bite.
The best thing to do if you stumble upon a sea lion, she said, is to keep quiet and calm. “That's the overarching message, just be boring for them.”
Seals. Wild seals are very intelligent, curious and have good coordination, learning tricks easily in captivity. They are highly curious and instinctively protective - there was even a case reported of a seal coming to the rescue of a drowning dog.
Gray seals may look friendly, but mounting evidence suggests that they can be vicious predators.
If you find a seal on a beach, watch it from a distance. Do not approach the animal. Seals regularly haul out on our coasts – it is part of their normal behaviour and, in fact, they spend more time out of the water, digesting their food and resting than in it.
As if the damage by a bite wouldn't be bad enough, seals can also carry infectious bacteria and conditions that can be transmitted to humans. In fact, seals don't even have to bite someone to make them sick.
Seals slap their bellies in order to send a message to other seals. It lets them communicate to perceived threats that they are strong and alert. These slaps will emit warning signals via low-frequency sound waves which can be picked up by other seals thanks to their acute hearing.
Seal pups bite!
They can give a nasty bite, which will become infected by the bacteria that live in a seal's mouth. Don't allow dogs or other animals to harass a seal - it could be scared back into the water and washed out to sea by strong currents. Never put a seal pup back in the sea as it may get into difficulty.
Under the EPBC Act all seals and sea lions occurring within Australian waters are listed as marine species ( EPBC Act 1999; section 248). It is an offence to kill, injure, take, trade, keep, or move any member of a listed marine species on Australian Government land or in Commonwealth waters without a permit.
“Dogs and seals are not in the same family, however, and are not closely related. The family that compromises seals, Pinnipedia, split from other caniforms around 50 million years ago.” Upon further inspection, there are some pretty obvious phenotypical distinctions between seals and dogs.