[imagesource: Yahoo! News]

Humans have a tendency to misunderstand other animals.

The results of this can either be frightening or hilarious, depending on if the person makes it out alive.

Watching the viral video of pair of angry sea lions chasing after beachgoers at a San Diego beach on Friday is, thankfully, on the comedic side of animal encounters.

The marine mammals are part of the La Jolla Cove Underwater Park Ecological Reserve, with signs posted around the area warning visitors to give the wild animals their space. Despite this, locals are generally quite happy to sunbathe next to them on a usual day.

Except on Friday, when the sea lions seemed particularly irate, sending sunbathers skedaddling over the sand as they waddled after them at full speed.

The New York Post reported that the frenzied situation happened after someone on the beach got too close for a picture and woke the animals up from their slumber:

“I started recording because it was really funny to watch for me because to see all these tourists getting blown away by these giant sea lions,” Charlianne Yeyna [said].

Posted on TikTok originally, her video already has more than 10,5 million views:

Sea lion expert Eric Otjen of SeaWorld San Diego has a different take on what happened here, reported The Guardian.

He reckons we witnessed relatively normal sea lion behaviour, for this time of year particularly, as their breeding season is kicking into gear.

See, the two male sea lions were sparring and chasing each other over their right to the females.

This is notable in how the sea lions had ample opportunity to hurt people who got in the way, but instead seemed focused on each other:

“He’s got swimmers all around him on his way back out, but they don’t bother him. What this is all about is his right to mate,” Otjen said, adding: “This behavior is not uncommon at all. The reason why the video has gotten like 10 millions views is because everybody is running like Godzilla is chasing them.”

Even though the sea lions weren’t out to get anyone but their own kind, it was still wise to run:

“It may look funny that everybody is running, but it’s not a bad choice. You don’t want to be caught in the cross fire,” Otjen said.

“Even if they don’t bite, it’s not a great feeling to have 200 to 300 pounds roll over you.”

No, that is not at all ideal.

Unless you’re trying to get your daily 10 000 steps in, it is always recommended to stay at least 15 metres away from sea lions.

[sources:nypost&guradian]