When employees arrived at work at the Marine Room in San Diego, they were expecting to start their normal morning prep for the customers that would be arriving later on, but were shocked to see they already had a guest resting in one of their booths.
Rather than finding a human, workers found a malnourished sea lion pup sleeping in one of the booths overlooking the ocean “almost like she wanted to have dinner,” Executive Chef Bernard Guillas told Reuters. And when the staff called a SeaWorld rescue team, they could tell the tiny baby was underweight and dehydrated.
The pup must have wandered up from the beach and snuck into the restaurant when a cleaning crew left the door open, and SeaWorld officials explained that the sea lion pup was seeking warmth, higher ground, and food like many other sea lions who end up stranded on land because of high tides and warm El Nino waters that have destroyed their food supply this season.
After the rescue team brought the starving pup, who weighed less than half the normal weight for its age at just 20 pounds, back to SeaWorld for care and a good meal.
The pup is now getting the care she desperately needed, and despite being found lethargic, severely underweight, and with a swollen left eye, the team said they were “cautiously optimistic” she would recover and eventually be released back into the wild.
Watch the entire video below to see the incredible moment this hungry sea lion pup was rescued after finding shelter in a restaurant booth.
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[Featured Image: Bernard Guillas]