Hilarious Photo of a Sea Lion Holding a Bucket to Remind the Aquarium Keeper of Its Feeding Time

Oftentimes, when an animal finds humans interesting, they tend to mimic their gestures, such as a dog imitating its human mom while exercising or a cat covering its eyes while watching its dad sleep. These hilarious mimicries actually amuse people who assume the animals are pretending to be humans. When a photo of a sea lion holding an empty feeding bucket circulated the internet, some netizens joked that it may have wanted to switch positions with the caretaker. 😆

A Japanese netizen shared a hilarious photo on Twitter. He recently visited the Takeshima Aquarium in Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture, and saw a breeder enter a sea lion enclosure. The sea lion was carrying an empty feeding bucket with both fins and was standing straight while its caretaker approached the hungry animal. The visiting netizen noticed that the interaction between the human and the sea lion was quite interesting.

え… pic.twitter.com/28qGf8l8YS

— すんだん (@Znplus2) April 18, 2022

The post has garnered around 196,000 likes. Netizens left funny comments about the photo:

“Caretaker and sea lion switched positions.”

“Breeder becoming a sea lion and sea lion raising humans?”

“Sea lion: ‘Did you forget to feed me?’”

“I feel like the sea lion is hungry and angry.”

“They look like work-study students in sea lion costumes.”

“It looks like sea lions training their keepers!”

“The sea lion stuck out its tongue. So cute!”

トドの餌やりをガン見するゴマフアザラシが可愛すぎた pic.twitter.com/aqdMkGD3Nl

— みぃや@🍋🦪🍣 (@miiya05) November 6, 2021

Although sea lions mostly crawl on land, they sometimes stand on their hind fins. In November 2021, there were 2 spotted gray sea lions at the Kinosaki Sea World Aquarium in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, who were caught on camera while they were standing on their hind fins. They were watching from the water tank while the staff were feeding the other sea lions. They were eagerly staring at the food bucket carried by the caretaker. The hilarious photo has since gone viral, with netizens getting a good laugh at the 2 standing sea lions. 😆