Mothers return from their feeding trips in intervals to nurse their young. They are able to locate their pup by first calling to them and then identifying them by smell. Sometimes mothers are separated from their pup and are not successful in finding them. This can be due to several factors such as high tide, storms, male abductions, and inexperienced young mothers. Larger populations experience higher pup mortality because of the greater risk of pups being trampled to death by adult sea lions.
Pups spend most of their time in groups or pods playing, sleeping, or residing near the water.
They rarely swim into the deeper waters unless accompanied by their mothers. They typically first enter the water at about 3 to 4 weeks of age with other sea lions in a large group. They continue to nurse from their mother for about 6 to 12 months, until the following year when the mother gives birth to another pup. Even then mothers have been known to nurse both pups simultaneously. Male pups mature later than female pups.