Baby Sea Lions in Galapagos Islands 2024

Baby sea lions are some of the most adorable and cutest creatures in the world. If you want to see the pups, you should visit the Galapagos Islands in August and the following months—it's the period when the majority of them are born. However, you can witness them all year round.

The Galapagos Islands are home to a colony of 50,000 endemic sea lions(Zalophus wollebaeki). The largest number of them can be observed at San Cristobal, the easternmost island in the archipelago. The capital city of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno has dozens of these sea mammals everywhere along the waterfront. To see the sea lions in a more natural setting, visit Playa Loberia outside the city where playful pups often interact with people. The small island of Santa Fe located near Santa Cruz also has a large colony, where boats bring tourists to swim and snorkel with sea lions.

The females give birth to a single pup once a year and take care of it up to three years, so it might happen that you see two pups of different ages around one mum. A mother stays with a newborn sea lion for five days, and then she leaves it for a while to go fishing. In the meantime, another female sea lion takes care of all the pups in a kind of nursery in shallow waters. Sometimes males assist in defending the nurseries from sharks or other dangers. After the pups reach five months, they start to learn fishing.

Soon young sea lions will begin to get food on their own.​