The enclosure is home to eight Californian Sea lions, the youngest 10 month old Elmo. Max is the newest member who has just arrived from Madrid Zoo as part of a breeding programme, and he was rather noisy! Due to recent air travel disruption caused by the Icelandic volcano, Max also had to travel to the UK by road instead of air from Madrid.
We learnt that Californian Sea lions live for about 25 to 30 years and due to the oil content of the fish they eat they have black teeth!
The sea lion trainer Khalid took us through a demonstration of the skills of two of the sea lions – Gina and Anya and we were all really impressed and amused at the sea lions applauding themselves!
Having visited the zoo for many years the new enclosure is much, much better which houses a new seated area where the keepers can communicate much better to the audience. With all the recent improvements at the zoo such as the new penguin pool, giraffe walk and now with the arrival of a new baby gorilla, it is certainly worth paying a visit to this gem of an attraction, located adjacent to Stanley Park on the edge of Blackpool.
Click here for more information about Blackpool Zoo.
Amy Colgan and Tim Dixon
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