Lindsay Bryant was getting ready for a swim when a sea lion thrashing in the water nearby caught her attention.
“At first I thought, ‘Oh, he’s just catching fish,'” the Nanaimo, B.C., woman said. “Then I kind of saw him struggling a bit … so that’s when I pulled out my phone.”
Bryant watched this go on for about five minutes, but it wasn’t until she was back at home and was able to zoom in on the footage that she realized what she had witnessed.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God. That’s crazy,” she said. “It was an octopus.”
Featured VideoThe entire battle between a sea lion and an octopus as filmed by Lindsay Bryant of Nanaimo, B.C.
Thursday’s battle between the aquatic mammal and eight-limbed mollusc took place just south of Nanaimo, which is about 110 kilometres north of Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Bryant, who swims multiple times a week, says sea lions are a near-daily sight but she’s never seen an octopus — let alone a sea lion fighting with one.
The entire event took place about 100 metres from where she was standing, and she could hear the sea lion breathing heavily and regularly disappearing below the surface only to come up again, sometimes tossing the octopus across the water.
“I actually thought that the sea lion was in danger…. It just wasn’t normal behaviour.”
Formidable foes
Two species of sea lions inhabit Vancouver Island — Steller sea lions, which breed in the north, and California sea lions, which breed in the south. Each is a type of pinniped, a group of aquatic mammals that also includes seals and walruses.
Both Steller and California sea lions can be seen in Nanaimo, but the Steller is larger and darker.
Andrew Trites, director of the marine mammal research unit at the University of British Columbia, said in an email to CBC News that — based on her footage — Bryant witnessed a Steller eating a large octopus.
A group of Steller sea lions near Sand Point, Alaska, in a 2004 photo. (Aleutian East Borough/The Associated Press)
Trites also said while octopuses are common prey for Steller sea lions, it is unusual for this sort of encounter to be caught on film.
“The challenge for a sea lion is to swallow an octopus without the octopus using its eight arms to grab onto the sea lion’s head while it is being swallowed whole,” he said. “The sea lion would suffocate.”
“The sea lion’s solution is to bite down onto one arm at a time and fling the octopus’ body with all its force to rip off an arm to swallow whole. They do it at the surface because they can get more torque in air than they can underwater.”
Bryant says, looking back, she does recall seeing smaller chunks being thrown around that at the time she thought might have been fish but “which I’m guessing was octopus legs, unfortunately.”
octopuses can fight back in other ways, as well. In 2010, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game published an account of a Steller sea lion dismembering an estimated 25-pound octopus — an event captured by marine biologist Sherry Tamone, who said it appeared to be a tough fight.
“The octopus can wrap itself around the head of the sea lion and it can bite pretty fiercely. Their beak looks a bit like that of a parrot and each bite delivers some nasty chemicals,” she is quoted as saying in the article.
Her account mimics that seen by Bryant, with the sea lion struggling over several minutes with its opponent.
“It was almost gasping for air, like it was trying to stay above the surface,” Bryant recalled.
Other sea lion versus octopus battles
There have been other memorable pinniped versus octopus battles captured elsewhere in the world, too.
Bryant’s not sure what happened to either animal, though she is pretty sure the sea lion won — but not without a fair bit of pushback from the octopus.
“I definitely think it put up a good fight,” she said.
She says she has had many memorable encounters with ocean life, but this one stands out for how surprising it was.
“It was just crazy,” she said. “I was literally sitting on my couch and I couldn’t believe it when I zoomed in. I’m like, ‘No way,’ because it just made so much sense how everything went down.
“I wish, looking back now, that I knew exactly what was going on, but it was kind of a neat surprise in the end.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
