Seal pups are cute but it is also now more dangerous to take selfies with wild animals as wildlife officials are now urging tourists to maintain their distance from new pups, which can also spell imminent danger to the pups and humans as well.

Officials from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) are now warning that taking a photo with the young animals can spell potential disaster as impromptu selfies surfaced online with a range of animals from dolphins, sharks and even bison, leaving humans injured and some of those creatures, dead.

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Officials say that this trend is actually dangerous, as wildlife advocates also say that selfies with wildlife can become very dangerous to the animals as well, where a baby dolphin died last winter after beachgoers passed the marine creature around in a crowd, taking videos and snapshots with the baby dolphin.

According to officials from the World Animal Protection, wild animals are not toys or props and the best way to appreciate them is to leave them alone in their wild habitat where they belong.

NOAA wants to prevent similar situations from happening, such as newly born seal pups are left to the beach to rest, as their mothers hunt and feed before tending to them. Officials from the agency also say that getting too close with a wild animal can put humans and animals at risk. For example, a mother seal can leave her young pup alone by the beach for almost 24 hours while hunting.

NOAA adds that since seal pups are naturally curious animals, they can approach humans and wander too close to them on their own. A likely scenario would be that a mother seal might be watching while humans take selfies with their babies, and could even decide that it can be too risky to retrieve their pups, ultimately abandoning the pups at the beach.

An even more dangerous situation would be, that photo takers of the seal pups can experience powerful bites that can cause damage and severe injury, where officials confirm that this act of approaching a wild animal will be considered as illegal harassment.

According to marine mammal stranding program coordinator, Mendy Garron from the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region, the best thing to do is to keep away from the animal including your pets, for the mother to have a chance to return to her seal pup, at a distance of at least 150 feet from any seals.

TagsNOAA, selfies seal pups, Seals, seal pups, cute seal pups, wildlife selfies, animal selfies