Audin Rhodes/MDN Lilly the sea lion dives through a ring at the Sea Lion Splash free stage show at the State Fair. Suzy Bartholo holds the ring and is the sea lion trainer for the show.

Sea lions are not seals. This is one of the educational points made during the Sea Lion Splash performance at the North Dakota State Fair. Lilly and Maya, the star sea lions of the free stage show, may not be seals but they are definitely entertainers.

“We just play the music and they know it’s almost time,” said Suzy Bartholo, the primary trainer of Lilly and Maya, or “the girls” as Bartholo affectionately calls them.

As showtime nears, pop music blares from the trailer speakers and the girls swim with more excitement, poking their heads out of the water to take stock of their audience.

“They can feel our energy. Same with the public, they can feel the (crowd’s) energy,” Bartholo said about the emotional intelligence of the girls.

The energy of the crowd on Wednesday was engaged and enthusiastic, with the large audience clapping and cheering for Lilly and Maya.

Some of the tricks the girls performed were balancing balls on their noses, jumping through rings, doing incredible front “hand” stands on their flippers, and even doing the conga and break dancing.

Bartholo said training is actually one of the harder things about working with sea lions.

“They’re super smart. So sometimes they’ll be like, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ They are like kids so you have to be smarter than them because they are going to try and train you,” she said.

“We like to give them a break if they don’t feel good,” said Bartholo about training the girls. “I’ll try two or three times to see if they want to do a trick. If they don’t, okay just take a break, relax, and we’ll try later.”

The girls also get a break during the off-season winter months and a three-week break in June. Show season is from February to November.

After the show, Lilly lied on the stage, blinking her eyes slowly while she howled and barked in Bartholo’s direction.

“She just wants attention,” Bartholo said. “Lilly is more like a dog. She likes attention, she likes to follow you.” Lilly continued to bark and howl before rolling onto her side.

“She’s going to pretend she’s dying right now,” said Bartholo. “Oh poor baby Lilly. Oh, you’re going to clap? Okay, you can clap!” Bartholo said while Lilly “clapped” by waving and shaking her flippers in the air while staring at Bartholo with big puppy dog eyes (or big sea lion eyes).

“Maya doesn’t really like people, she doesn’t like being touched so she’s more like a cat. Everything is in (Maya’s) own time. She’ll be like, ‘okay I’m ready, you can talk to me.’ They have their own personalities.”

Bartholo said Maya sometimes gets jealous of Lilly if Lilly gets too much attention. Bartholo demonstrated this after the show by talking to Lilly while Lilly begged. Maya immediately dove out of the pool, slid across the wet stage and scooted her way over to Bartholo.

“Right now, Maya is trying to be the alpha so she’s kind of fighting with Lilly. But (Maya) is young. She’s six and Lilly is 11. So Lilly knows it’s whatever,” Bartholo said.

“Lilly and I have been working for one and a half years together. She knows when I’m not good. She knows when I need attention, like a dog,” Bartholo said. Bartholo said her favorite thing about working with the girls is her connection with them.

“I think they’re easier than people. Animals can understand you. They can feel your emotions.”

Bartholo also educates the audience during the Sea Lion Splash show, focusing on topics such as ocean pollution, litter, and the differences between sea lions and seals.

Jimmy Earhart, owner of Sea Lion Splash, said 13 of the 17 sea lions in the organization are rescues. The other four sea lions were born in captivity elsewhere and transferred to Sea Lion Splash.

Earhart said many of the rescued sea lions had been beach stranded multiple times. “When sea lions are beach stranded once, they get another chance (to return to the ocean), but if it keeps happening repeatedly and they’re injured, they’re taken in and rehabilitated and the government tries to find them a new forever home. We’re one of those forever homes,” Earhart said.

“We’ve had blind sea lions, we’ve had sea lions injured from shark bites and different injuries,” said Earhart. These sea lions may no longer be capable of surviving in the ocean and their wild habitat but Earhart said all of his sea lions are capable of doing many other things, such as performing.

Earhart said there are seven male sea lions and 10 females in the Texas-based company. The male sea lions stay home in Texas and do not travel due to their sheer size. Male sea lions can weigh upwards of 800 pounds and a single male sea lion would need an entire trailer to himself.

There are 10 trainers who work for Sea Lion Splash through Capital International Productions Inc. and Bartholo is the only one traveling on the road, educating and entertaining folks across the states with Maya and Lilly splashing at her side.

The Sea Lion Splash show continues through today at Stage 5 in the North Dakota State Fairgrounds. Showtimes are at 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.