SEAWORLD (Day 9 - part 4)

The trainers seemed to genuinely care about and personally interact with the orcas.

Bolting away to perfom more absolutely impressive feats of strength and power!

Jumping COMPLETELY out of the water!

A farewell fluke wave

Next came dolphin feeding time.

The dophins knew it was almost time and began moving in.

Starting to get a bit impatient!

Splashing and carrying-on with tail flips and head flops

C'mon, c'mon already!!

Finally!!

Next door was Otter Outlook. The California population of sea otters is listed as threatened, with less than 2,800 animals. These ones were initially stranded and rescued as part of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Otter Research and Conservation program.

California sea otters are found along the coast of central California. Lacking an insulating blubber layer, they're covered in dense fur which keeps them warm (at 850,000 to 1 million hairs per square inch, they have the thickest fur of any mammal!)

They also have an extremely fast metabolism and eat about 20 - 25% of their body weight daily. So, for an otter weighing 100 pounds, that'd be 25 pounds of food every day!

This must be Mocha!

At the Dolphin Adventures show, Bottlenose Dolphins showed off their incredible abilities.

This time, we felt daring and ventured a bit into the soak zone!

The pre-show entertainer ... and constant clouds of bubbles

An egret explores the fish box.

The athletic feats begin!

With flips in every possible direction!

Reward time!

As with the orcas, these trainers also seemed genuinely connected with the animals.

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