SeaWorld San Antonio welcomed the first sea lion of the 2019 pinniped pupping season, it announced Friday.
The new sea lion was delivered June 18 by Rachel, a 4-year-old California sea lion, at SeaWorld’s Pacific Point Preserve seal and sea lion habitat.
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Park specialists said Rachel and the pup appear to be in good health but noted that the first few days and weeks in the life of a pinniped are crucial to long-term survival.
The pup will graduate to a solid diet of fish after nursing for anywhere from five months to a year.
Though the pup is the first of the year, park officials said more sea lion births are expected throughout the summer.
Until then, guests can look at the new pup with its mother as it learns to swim and integrate into the social structure at the park’s Pacific Point Preserve habitat.