San Francisco Is Going Nuts Over a Giant Sea Lion Named Chonkers [View all]

an Francisco is not only on the rebound, she is in love. His name is Chonkers. He is a 2,000-pound Steller sea lion who swam up to a dock on Pier 39 a month ago and has decided to stay.

The city noticed immediately. Chonkers is about three times the size of the California sea lions that typically inhabit the San Francisco Bay, and when he crashes his mighty frame down on the dock he’s chosen to sleep on, it sounds like an oak tree falling down. Online commenters quickly began tracking his every move.

Soon after he was spotted, a San Francisco-based Redditor named Des Tan called him Chonker, a play on chonky, which is slang for humorously chubby, and it stuck. “Chonkus Maximus is the Latin name I believe,” wrote another Redditor.

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Chonkers is a Steller, a different species from his dockmates, according to Laura Gill, public programs manager with Marine Mammal Center. Her team has been tracking the giant since March 13. Stellers are lighter-colored yellowy giants that you are more likely to spot in Washington state or Alaska.

Sea lions are thigmotactic, a scientific term for very social creatures who like to cuddle. And they like to horse around. So, despite his size, Chonkers seems to fit right in. He can often be seen sunning himself on the dock, with other sea lions dozing or barking away nearby. Last week he delighted visitors by shooting his one-ton body out of the water and hopping up on one of the floating docks west of the pier, sending two of the previously lounging 700-pound California sea lions skeetering into the bay’s frigid water.



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