Percevero, a young sea lion probably looking for food, was rescued along a major boulevard in San Francisco, more than 1,000 feet from the ocean. Hundreds of sick and starving sea lion pups and yearlings are turning up on California beaches. (AP Photo/National Park Service)

Percevero means “perseverance” in Latin, so it makes sense that’s the name National Park Ranger Matt Wallat gave a hungry sea lion pup found more than 1,000 feet from the ocean in San Francisco. Though seeing a sea lion on a busy city street may sound like a hoot or a scene from a kids’ book, Percevero’s location actually worries wildlife authorities, who say it’s likely the emaciated animal was searching for food. He’s one of several hundred baby sea lions that have already stranded this year.

“ come in very underweight and malnourished,” Yvette Koth, a Marine Mammal Center spokeswoman, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Just in the last 10 days, we’ve gotten 100 pups in. Normally during this time of year, we shouldn’t see any sea lion pups at all because they should be nursing in the Channel Islands.”

The 18-month-old sea lion weighed just when he was found, but an animal his age should weigh almost three times that, the Associated Press reported.

Why these babies don’t stay with their moms, who typically nurse for almost a year, has been a mystery to rescue groups and research facilities. In January alone, they captured more than . “They just look very emaciated, very underweight,” Erica Donnelly-Greenan, manager of the Marine Mammal Center’s rescue station, told the Chronicle earlier this month. “You can see the bones under their skin. You can get a visual of their ribs.”

Some surmise warmer water temperatures are changing food availability in the Channel Islands. Moms leave for much longer periods of time trying to find food and the hungry pups get swept to shore by the ocean currents.

This is the third year in a row for such strandings — and the are still to come, Justin Viezbicke, NOAA’s stranding network coordinator, told National Geographic. “We’re all kind of holding our breath.” For the moment Persevero is okay; given his journey away from the ocean, up a hill and across a busy San Francisco street, he sure lived up to his name.

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