Shakira has been attacked by a sea lion whilst on holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, after trying to take of photograph of the animal.
The Waka Waka singer was left paralysed with fear after being attacked by a sea lion whilst holidaying in Cape Town in South Africa.
Shakira was trying to take a photograph of the animal when it jumped out of the water and tried to bite her. It later emerged that the sea lion had thought that her mobile phone was a fish.
Speaking on her BlogSpot, the Hips Don't Lie' singer said This afternoon I happened to see some sea lions and seals. I thought how cute they were so decided to get closer than all the other tourists and went down to a rock.
Suddenly, one jumped out of the water so fast that it got about one foot away from me, looked me in the eye, roared in fury and tried to bite me.
We both got our hands and legs scratched by the rocks while trying to protect ourselves. I believe it confused the reflection of the Blackberry phone I was taking pics with, with some sort of fish. It thought I was teasing it with food. MTV online reported.
The blog was accompanied with a picture of Shakira's damaged hand.
After her terrible ordeal, Shakira later posted a picture of herself with some penguins saying Today with penguins! Definitely friendlier!
The public's perception of sea lions is far from reality and even the most healthiest of sea lions are best left alone.
According to Softpedia.com only these cuddly looking animals bite if they feel threatened or cornered. A spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center in San Francisco said People don't understand these animals are out here to survive for themselves.
One well known and very aggressive sea lion has bitten at least 14 swimmers and chased 10 more out of the water, one of the victims even suffered puncture wounds.
So next time you visit one of the Sea sanctuary centres in the UK remember these friendly looking creatures don't like having their photographs taken!
Main photo is copyright Andreas Bauer, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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