Emergency Response: Sea Lions in Crisis — Help Us Save Them

In less than 3 days, our rescue teams received more than 10 alerts about sea lions stranded across three different regions: the Paraná River Delta, the Río de la Plata estuary, and the province of Entre Ríos — a vast wetland area in northeastern Argentina, hundreds of miles from the open ocean where these animals belong.

This is an unusually high number of cases for this time of year.

Every year, along the shores of the Río de la Plata — the vast estuary near Buenos Aires, Argentina — marine animals wash ashore exhausted, disoriented, and fighting to survive.

Sea lions, penguins, sea turtles, and seabirds are often pushed off course by storms, ocean currents, or environmental stress. When they reach land, they are usually weak and in urgent need of care.

Without immediate help, many of them would not make it.

🚨 Right now, we are facing an emergency.

In less than 3 days, our rescue teams received more than 10 alerts about sea lions stranded across three different regions: the Paraná River Delta, the Río de la Plata estuary, and the province of Entre Ríos — a vast wetland area in northeastern Argentina, hundreds of miles from the open ocean where these animals belong.

This is an unusually high number of cases for this time of year.

Most of them are young animals that have just become independent from their mothers for the first time. Vulnerable, underweight, and dehydrated, they are arriving at Fundación Temaikèn's Wildlife Veterinary Hospital in need of urgent care.

So far, our teams have already responded to 16 individual sea lion cases across the affected regions, each one requiring specialized evaluation, treatment, and ongoing care.

Our rescue teams are working around the clock to respond.

“At this time of year, many young animals go through a critical stage: recently weaned and newly independent from their mothers, they begin life on their own — and for some, that journey leads them far from their natural habitat, weakened and disoriented.”— Cristian Gillet, Director of Wildlife, Fundación Temaikèn

Each rescue involves specialized transportation across long distances, followed by a full clinical evaluation: blood work, X-rays, intravenous hydration, assisted feeding, and weeks of veterinary follow-up.

For more than 25 years, Fundación Temaikèn has been one of Argentina’s leading organizations dedicated to wildlife conservation, rescue, and rehabilitation. Our Wildlife Veterinary Hospital is equipped to handle complex marine animal cases — but responding to a multi-region emergency of this scale requires extraordinary resources.

💚 At our Wildlife Rescue Center, specialists provide:

🚑 Emergency rescue and specialized transport

🏥 Advanced veterinary care and diagnostics

💧 Rehydration and assisted nutrition

🌊 Long-term rehabilitation and safe release back into the wild

Our goal is always the same: to return every animal that can survive on its own back to the ocean.

But this work is only possible with your support.

💝 Your donation helps provide:

🦭 Emergency rescue missions across multiple regions

🏥 Veterinary treatment, blood work, and X-rays

🐟 Specialized nutrition during recovery

💚 Safe rehabilitation spaces before release

Some animals recover in days. Others need weeks of intensive care before they are strong enough to return to the wild.

🦭 Right now, 16 young sea lions are receiving the specialized care they need to recover and return to the ocean where they belong.

With your help, we can make sure they get that chance.

🌊 Donate today and help rescue, rehabilitate, and return these animals to the ocean where they belong.