In the Field

The Pecking Order - Steller Sea Lions. North Coast, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2025.

If you like watching or photographing animal species that interact with one another a LOT, then you would very likely find Steller Sea Lions quite fascinating (assuming, of course, you can get over the smell at their haul-out and breeding sites!). During the breeding season the large adult males develop complex and well-defined dominance hierarchies that determine access to breeding females. But even AFTER the breeding season ends aspects of their dominance hierarchies are still seen among various demographic groups - large adult males are still dominant over females and younger males - and EVERYONE is dominant over the "pups of the year". In this shot a large adult male is posturing and asserting its dominance over a pup (who is clearly deferring to the male and obviously has no desire to challenge the male).

It's often said that one way to make an image successful is to ensure that it "tells a story". The ease of doing this varies a LOT between genres of photography - it tends to be easier to do with photojournalism or sports photography than with wildlife photography. That said, it IS possible to have wildlife images "tell a story" (albeit short stories). In my opinion a key to creating stories with wildlife photography is to focus on the behaviour of the animals, and especially animal behaviours that have parallels in humans. In this case the dominant male is clearly and obviously bullying the pup...which (especially these days) a lot of people and even counties can relate to.

On that note...thoughtful captioning of your images can help with the story you're trying to tell. I processed this image in the winter of 2025/2026 when a certain bellicose politician was threatening to take over Greenland. I was tempted to caption this image "Trump Spotted on Coast of Greenland, Locals Show Disgust!" but decided I didn't want to demean the adult sea lion (it didn't small THAT bad! 😉)

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this short sea lion saga for your perusal:

• The Pecking Order - Steller Sea Lions: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 3.4 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Khutzeymateen Summer Explorer Exploratory Photo Adventure in late August of 2025. Each year I offer photo tours into various locations on the amazing BC coast, including the Great Bear Rainforest and, every other year, into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

The Pecking Order - Steller Sea Lions. North Coast, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2025.

High Efficiency* Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 220.

Nikon Z 9 paired with Nikkor Z 400mm f2.8 TC VR S. Hand-held from floating Zodiac inflatable boat. VR on Sport mode. Wide-area custom (13x3) AF area mode with subject detection in Birds mode.

1/3200s @ f3.2; -0.3 stop exposure compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

The Pecking Order - Steller Sea Lions. North Coast, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2025.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .nef (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 9.5 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.7). In the case of this image two global adjustments were made - a tweaking of both the highlights and the blacks. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 4 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated primarily with "exposure balancing" and highly selective contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

The Pecking Order - Steller Sea Lions. North Coast, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2025.

Species Status in Canada*: Special Concern (November 2003) - protected in Canada since 1970.

The Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) is the largest of the sea-lions, and males can weigh up to a ton (females are considerably smaller and rarely weigh over 600 lb). Males compete among themselves for females, and successful males end up breeding with several females within their harem.

From the early 1900's through to the 1970's huge numbers of Steller's Sea-Lions were culled for their fur and to remove a competitor (for humans) for salmon. During that time approximately 55,000 sea lions were killed and the breeding population of BC was lowered to about 4,000 animals. Since the Steller Sea Lion first received protection in 1970 the population in the coastal waters of BC has grown to between 18,000 to 19,700 animals (7,600 or so of these are of breeding age).

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada