What’s a seal? What’s a sea lion?
But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids
Vermont Public
4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What’s the difference between seals and sea lions? Do seals bark? Are they gray? Do harbor seals live in snowy regions? Why do sea lions eat fish? Why do sea lions fight each other? Seals and sea lions are pinnipeds, fin-footed marine mammals, and we’re learning all about them today with a visit to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, where marine biologist Adam Ratner answers all your pinniped questions!
Download our learning guides: PDF | Google Slide | Transcript
You can watch the sea lions at San Francisco’s Pier 39 no matter where you live by checking out the live stream at pier39.com/sealions!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Why is the sky blue? |
| 0:04.0 | Why do birds sing? |
| 0:06.0 | Why do we need your support? |
| 0:08.0 | Because But Why is powered in part by listeners like you. |
| 0:12.0 | If But Why sparks curiosity and learning in your home, help us keep the show going strong. |
| 0:19.0 | Head to ButyKids.org slash donate to become a but-why fan club member or make a gift |
| 0:25.9 | in any amount to support the show. |
| 0:28.1 | Thanks and stay curious. This is But Why? |
| 0:40.3 | This is But Why, a podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont Public. |
| 0:58.0 | I'm Jane Lindholm. |
| 0:59.5 | On this show, we take questions from curious kids just like you, and we find answers. |
| 1:05.3 | When I was little, I wanted to be a marine biologist. |
| 1:08.7 | I wanted to learn all about the animals that live in the ocean. |
| 1:12.3 | And I know I'm not the only one fascinated by marine animals because we get lots of questions about |
| 1:17.9 | them. We've done episodes about fish and jellyfish and whales and sharks and lobsters and snails, |
| 1:24.8 | and we've written about even more marine wildlife in our book, |
| 1:28.9 | Do Fish Breathe Underwater? But we've never done a podcast episode about pinnipeds. Do you know |
| 1:36.3 | what a pinniped is? Don't worry, neither did I. Their name means fin-footed, and they have |
| 1:43.3 | flippers for both front and back legs. |
| 1:46.3 | They're all meat eaters, they're mammals, they live in the ocean, but they come on land to rest and to have their babies, |
| 1:52.7 | and some of them bark almost like dogs. |
| 1:56.0 | Maybe you guessed it, but pinnipeds are seals, sea lions, and walruses. In today's episode, we're going to |
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