Summer arrives with a SPLASH at Belfast Zoo!
The summer holidays have arrived with a ‘splash’ and so has Belfast Zoo’s latest arrival! The zoo team has recently celebrated the birth of a California sea lion pup.
The pup was born to mother, Arielle and father, Wesley, on 15 June 2015. Belfast Zoo has had great success with this species since becoming home to California sea lions over 60 years ago! Wesley arrived in Belfast in February 2007, from Woburn Safari Park, and has since fathered 18 pups. California sea lions in European zoos are managed as part of a collaborative breeding programme and many pups born at Belfast Zoo have moved to zoological collections around the world. The arrival of the latest pup brings the total number of sea lions in the zoo to seven.
Male sea lions are called bulls and females are called cows. Cows usually give birth to a single pup every year. Pups are born with their eyes already open. The mother provides milk which is high in fat and helps the pup to grow the important layer of blubber which allows the sea lion to keep warm. The mother continues to nurse the pup until approximately six months of age.
Zoo curator, Andrew Hope, said “Our sea lions are extremely popular with both keepers and visitors and we are delighted to welcome another pup this year! The gang are certainly one of the noisiest species at our Cave Hill site, especially at breeding time! Sea lions make all sorts of barks, honks, trumpets and roars and a sea lion pup can pick out its mother just by the sound she makes. Between the male’s roaring, the mother’s barking and the pup’s bleating the sea lions are making themselves heard all across the zoo!”
Zoo manager, Mark Challis, is delighted with the new arrival “School’s out for summer and we can’t wait to welcome everyone back to the zoo to see our latest arrival. We have a full schedule of animal feeding times which take place every day, so why not call by at 10.45am or 3pm to see the pup ‘making waves’ or check out Wesley and the gang at the underwater viewing area!”
This weekend (Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July 2015) you can bring your own ‘pups’ along to the zoo for FAMILY FUN DAYS. Find the ‘animal in you’ with fantastic face painting, bounce like a kangaroo at the bouncy castle, make a ‘Zoovenir’ at the craft stand, visit the brand new ‘Adventurers’ Learning Centre’, call by to visit the sea lions and all of your other favourites during feeding time and you can even meet a minion and Doc McStuffins.
You can support the care of Belfast Zoo’s California sea lions by taking part in the animal adoption scheme. For more information visit www.belfastzoo.co.uk, email adoption@belfastzoo.co.uk or call 028 9077 6277 extension 229.
