His hearty yawn suggests: This sea lion is pretty tired. In fact, this behavior is not always a sign of drowsiness. The seals yawn for other reasons.
Biologists now know that many animals don’t just yawn when they are sleepy. Yawning can also be a sign of empathy, serve as a means of communication and convey emotions. If you breathe deeply and open your teeth while doing so, you are making a subtle threat to the competition, for example.
In South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens), yawning apparently fulfills a variety of social functions, as Elisabetta Palagi from the University of Pisa and her colleagues have now found out. These seals also yawn especially often when they are resting and tired. At the same time, however, the animals often show this behavior immediately after social conflicts. Yawning therefore seems to be an expression of fear and stress among the sea lions. It may help them reduce tension and literally clear the stress.
The interesting thing about it: yawning is also known from animals such as lemurs and chimpanzees in the context of stressful experiences. “Spontaneous yawning seems to serve similar purposes in many mammals that live in well-structured social groups,” the researchers concluded.