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.
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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.