MALE SEA LIONS HAVE GOTTEN BIGGER OVER THE LAST FIFTY YEARS! UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA MARINE SCIENCE

Usually as a population grows, the sea lions get smaller.  However just published in Current Biology, is a report from University of California at Santa Cruz.

Excerpt:  It's counterintuitive.  You would expect that their body size would decrease as dietary resource competition intensified," said coauthor Paul Koch, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UCSC.

The number of California sea lions has increased dramatically since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972.  In parts of their range, the sea lions may now be approaching the ecological "carrying capacity," the largest number of animals an ecosystem can support.

NEWS-UCSC EDU : 2024 SEA LIONS

Excerpt: "We found that the male California sea lions have expanded their ecological niche, which means they are now foraging on a more diversified group of prey and expanding the places where they are foraging on a more diversified group ogf prey and expanding the places where they are foraging," Valenzuela-Toro said.  "Apparently they are now going farther north than they used to.....

**** Scientists looked at the skulls of sea lions...