Mammals at play

(pinniped or pinpoint surfer?)

Along the Southern California shore, the heads of sea lions and seals bob in the water. Or they could be the heads of surfer dudes, who look much like seals at a distance. On a day of moderate surf, they wait. The watchers also wait to see who catches a wave. Anticipation can suspend time, or stretch it, or shrink it. Waiting for something dramatic, poised, is different than just waiting. It's more like the waiting of a heron, poised to take a fish, or the waiting of a polar bear for a seal.
Sometimes mammals, particularly the human sort, shift their abilities to inhabit different elements. Humans and labrador retrievers become seal-like, hunting for something in cold waters. Seals become like labrador retrievers, hauling a muscular hulk to a warm place, looking around with big sleepy eyes, huddling with others for body warmth and softness.
I once read that if given eons, the polar bear may become fully aquatic, an evolutionary reversal as an organic being returns to the sea. If only that could happen before all ice floes melt and the unprepared polar bear has nowhere to go.

There is a controversy here about sea lions and seas moving onto the beaches--more on that later