With their silly smiles and big brown eyes, Australian sea lions are adorable. Photographer Louise Cooper should know: in late 2019 she visited Kangaroo Island with a team of scientists from University of Sydney to photograph the sea lion colony at the beautiful Seal Bay. Cooper spent hours sitting with her camera amid sand dunes watching sea lions go about their day－mothers taking care of their young, huge males lazily sunning themselves on the sand, others playing bitey-face in the surf. "These playful creatures are just like puppy dogs," she says.
Sadly, hunted almost to dying out in the 1800s, these creatures' slow recovery has been influenced by their very long breeding(繁殖) period－Australian sea lions breed every 18 months, compared to 12 months for fur seals. Over the last 40 years, sea lion numbers have fallen by more than half. Cooper was on the South Australian island to record the important work being done by scientist Dr Rachael Gray and her team, who are trying to find out why.
"Hookworm(钩虫) disease is quite common in Australian sea lions," Cooper explains." So scientists like Dr Gray are treating them with an antibiotic(抗生素) to see if they can stamp it out(消灭，根除)."High levels of mercury and E coli have also been discovered in their system. Together, these human pollutants weaken the sea lions' immune(免疫的) systems. There are hopes that stamping out hookworm in Australian sea lions will give them a better chance of survival.
The team's visit to Kangaroo Island was on the eve of the deadly bushfires that swept through much of the island, destroying wildlife and animal habitats. Dr Gray raced from Sydney to check on the seals and, the sea lions mostly paid no attention to what had happened. Thankfully, the sea lion colony at Seal Bay survived unharmed.
"The fires were heartbreaking," says Cooper, who hopes to return to the colony with Dr Gray and her team, who for now are keeping an eye on this at-risk group of sea animals.
