'Do not feed the animals' is a warning we're used to seeing on signs, but one incident has highlighted why this common saying is so important.
A Canadian family were left in shock this month when a sea lion dragged a young girl into the sea.
The animal appeared in the water by a dock in the British Columbia village of Stevenson, when a crowd gathered around it and began to feed it breadcrumbs.
Uni student Michael Fujiwara was at Fisherman's Wharf that day, and began filming the sea lion as it interacted with the girl's family. At one point, the sea lion appears to jump up to eye-level and nip at the bemused girl, as the Japanese-Canadian family laugh.
I captured a scary moment of a seal dragging a young girl into the water at the #Richmond Steveston Wharf #Vancouver https://t.co/58mzL0v1mM
— Michael Fujiwara (@MichaelFujiwara) 21 May 2017
As she sits on the dock's edge with her back turned to the imposing creature, it senses its opportunity to strike again and suddenly jumps up again, biting her dress and jerking her back into the water.
The shocked crowd screams and a man immediately jumps in after the girl to rescue her, and the camera man and others help to pull them both out.
Fujiwara says he does not know if the man who jumped into the water to rescue the girl was related to her. He says it appeared that no one was injured in the incident, but the girl and those with her left immediately after getting her back on the dock.
"They were pretty shaken up," he told CBC. "Her family were just in shock."
Fujiwara says he goes once a week to the docks, sees sea lions often, but has never witnessed anything like what he was able to capture on video.
Andrew Trites is a biologist and director of Marine Mammal Research at University of British Columbia. He said, "My first reaction to the video is just how stupid some people can be to not treat wildlife with proper respect."
He added that he didn't blame the animal for its behaviour: "This was a male California sea lion. They are huge animals. They are not circus performers. They're not trained to be next to people."
Trites says the sea lion in the video looks like it is used to having people feed it.
He said that people should 'let wildlife be wildlife': "The little girl has her back to the sea lion, and it would appear that the sea lion sees part of her dress, thinks it's food, reaches up, grabs at the food and pulls her in by the dress. But it wasn't food, of course."
Trites hopes the video of the encounter teaches others to not feed wild animals like sea lions. He says the animals are not inherently dangerous and are not looking to grab people.
"You keep your distance. Watch the animals, but let wildlife be wildlife."
