The endangered New Zealand sea lion could be in line for an image makeover in the same way as the North American grizzly bear, Radio New Zealand reports.
After being hunted to the brink of extinction, the New Zealand sea lion is now back on the Otago-Southland coast, numbering up to about 200 animals.
But that has raised some problems as people adjust to having them back. Two weeks ago, the swimming pool at Dunedin's St Clair had to be evacuated when a young sea lion wandered into the hot salt-water pool.
Now, a group of US students is working with the Department of Conservation to look at whether the species needs to be "rebranded." The group was starting on surveys of 400 people, from Dunedin down to Stewart Island, to find out what they know about the endangered mammal and how they view them.
Student Thomas Nuthman from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, said the aim was to come up with suggestions for better education campaigns for the animal to help it thrive.
He said the North American grizzly bear and gray wolf had been hunted and poached for years, but in the 1950s and 1960s there was a huge push to rebrand them in the media.
“They became more of a national heritage symbol in the United States rather than some horrible animal to be feared and killed on sight,” he said.
Shaun McConkey from the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust said it might be a matter of branding the sea lion positively, rather than having to re-brand it, because few people have had many experiences of it.
"The key message is to give them space," he said.
