Time to fire up the barbie and show 'em how the food chain works.

Hmm. The kid snuck up behind a sea lion, startled it, got snapped at, and is in stable condition. Going just by that, "mauled" sounds a bit strong.

Sealions are very aggressive creatures. They use their mouths to explore their surroundings but rarely "bite".

When diving with Sealions it is common to be nibbled on hundreds of times as thousands of them surround you. But they cannot break the skin through a dive suit.

The younger ones are like hyperactive children with a belly full of soda and a snout full of Cocaine. Total madness.

Sucks the kid was not properly handled by the staff.

It's a sea LION for god's sake. Not a Bosnian sea PUPPY.

/

Jesus Christ it's a sea lion!

Get in the submarine!

The sea creature of peace?

They're too cute!




/Okay...that MIGHT be a seal...but my point still stands.

Ahahahaahhahaahhahaha

11-year-olds can be pretty annoying.

That's bound to happen when you go to Taronga Zoo.

//Save your sympathy for a few years when he has his first run-in with a lyin' c.

Son, I am being mauled by a sea lion.

Why the hell would you volunteer to be a part of that. Let me go up and pet the farking penguins, I'm pretty sure they won't kill me. Your farking killer dolphins and your sea lions you can have for yourselves.

This may or may not be relevant.

lantawa: The lad simply wanted to examine and remove sum bukket, not realizing one should never come between marine mammals and their bukkets.

Newsflash: animals can attack despite never showing aggressive behavior before. It happens all the time, but humans are complacent.

/oh, but my pit bull is SO FRIENDLY

Good story to take home though. "Hey I got mauled by a sea lion!" "SWEET!!"

wtf is a sea lion doing at a mall?

The zoo says "the animal has a long history of participating in animal encounters and has never displayed aggressive behaviour" before.

I don't think the animal encountering animals is really relevant here.

"I only chewed on him a little bit."

Minerva8918: Good story to take home though. "Hey I got mauled by a sea lion!" "SWEET!!"

I can picture it going like this

kid "hey guys, I got mauled by a sea lion"
kids friends "dude you got mauled by a lion?, that's awesome"
kid "not a lion, a sea lion"
kids friends "lame"

and all he got was this stupid t-shirt.

texdent: They chose poorly.

I lol'd

Was it like "fish night" in prison?

They can maul people? Where can I get one?!

T.M.S.: Sealions are very aggressive creatures. They use their mouths to explore their surroundings but rarely "bite".

When diving with Sealions it is common to be nibbled on hundreds of times as thousands of them surround you. But they cannot break the skin through a dive suit.

The younger ones are like hyperactive children with a belly full of soda and a snout full of Cocaine. Total madness.

Sucks the kid was not properly handled by the staff.

There's a difference between "cannot break the skin" and "don't usually break the skin"; I'm sure you mean the latter. I have a feeling that if they wanted to break through a thin neoprene wetsuit they'd be pretty successful.

T.M.S.:
Sucks the kid was not properly handled by the staff.

It sucks that our species still gets off on going to see trained animal shows.

/no, I'm not a peta member or a vegetarian
//just thinks trained animal shows are weird and do not see the attraction.
///Of course if you hit them or give them shiat they will do wacky stuff for you. they're animals.

Hope ya'll are happy. Now comes the payback bishes.....

dahmers love zombie: They are not called "sea kittens". There's a reason for that.

They would be called sea kittens, but it's already taken...

Taronga Zoo? Could have been worse, could have been a narwhale, or a whale throwing up a swim suit.


Better listen to your whale biologists people.

Kid sounds like a class act for sneaking up behind it and managing to slip into a restricted area or whatever the hell.

you've struck by a
bom bom bom
you've been hit by
bom bom
a smooth criminal.

LeroyBourne: you've struck by a
bom bom bom
you've been hit by
bom bom
a smooth criminal.

And, of course, the squirrels.

People tend to forget that animals are generally dicks. We get too caught up in anthropomorphizing any and every animal we come across and end up being shocked when animals act they way nature intended them to act.

"Bitten and in stable condition" sounds rather different than "mauled". It sounds like the kid got too close and took a minor, easily treated bite, not a face removal. :P

I came here to lecture you guys about animal behavior but I see that's already been done, so never mind.

What a bish; a mauling would have been more interesting. Did subby even read the article?

The zoo says after the show the boy "accidentally strayed into an area behind the female animal".

He was chosen to be part of the show, and then "strayed" into an area where he shouldn't have been?

How is it that the animal trainers aren't paying attention to their one audience volunteer (a kid, no less)?