Tiergarten Nürnberg

In the past few weeks three Californian sea lions (Zalophus californianus) were born at the Tiergarten Nürnberg. Sea lion ladies Ginger, Lisa and Josi each gave birth to a healthy baby in June. Ginger's daughter Giselle was born on 27 May 2011, Lisa's daughter Luise saw the light of day on 16 June and Josi gave birth to her son Janne on 20 June. With 6, 10 and 4 babies, all three are experienced mothers, leading to the assumption that the young will all be successfully reared. Father of all three young sea lions is harem boss Patrick. Together with the three young of this year, already 59 sea lions grew up at the Tiergarten Nürnberg. Nürnberg's sea lions are veritable globetrotters and most of them found a home in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Israel, Hongkong, China or Japan.

They even returned to their natural home California.

Last Friday, 1 July 2011, the babies' father, 24-year-old Patrick passed away at around 3.15 p.m. Already during the last two rutting seasons, he had lost energy and showed clear weakness. He never truly recovered since last year and had not eaten anything for the past weeks. Due to the weekend, the autopsy had to wait until today. It will hopefully show the exact cause of Patrick's death. With 37 raised young, Patrick was one of the most successful group leaders of his kind in zoos.