Employees at an upscale San Diego restaurant opened for business Thursday morning to find one very hungry diner already there: An 8-month-old sea lion. The pup apparently made her way into the restaurant overnight and then wandered over to a booth with an ocean view before falling asleep.
"[She] was a little bit early for [her] high tide breakfast reservation," Marine Room executive chef Bernard Guillas wrote on Facebook, later telling Reuters that it was "almost like she wanted to have dinner."
When experts from SeaWorld's Animal Rescue Center showed up to rescue the pup, they confirmed that the baby sea lion was indeed in need of a good meal. Experts say she was dehydrated and severely underweight, weighing less than half that of a typical 8-month-old California sea lion.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Upon her arrival at SeaWorld's facility, she finally got the meal she'd been looking for. Experts say they're "cautiously optimistic" the pup will recover and be able to return to the wild.
This sea lion rescue marks one of many this year as higher-than-normal ocean temperatures caused by El Nino have impacted animals' food supply. SeaWorld alone has rescued 47 sea lions and other marine animals this year.
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
-
Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
-
‘Never more precarious’: the UN turns 80The Explainer It’s an unhappy birthday for the United Nations, which enters its ninth decade in crisis
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
