In most places, school’s out for summer. That means more visitors to the Tulsa Zoo, just in time for the birthday of its two California sea lions, Briney and Dorsey.
Briney is 26 and Dorsey is 19 as of May 29.
The zoo’s Curator of Behavioral Husbandry Marcie Tarvid says typical sea lions live into their late 20s to early 30s.
“But we’re not telling Briney that,” Tarvid said.
Tarvid gave a talk to a group of zoo guests as the sea lions participated in enrichment to celebrate their birthday.
The enrichment consisted of frozen ice cakes embedded with fish.
“They could interact with their ice cakes if they wanted to; if they don’t want to, that’s fine,” Tarvid said, “but fortunately for us and all the visitors, they interacted with them.”
It’s the two animals first birthday in their new exhibit, the Helmerich Sea Lion Cove, which opened earlier this year.
Tarvid says the exhibit has the capacity to be home to up to five sea lions. The zoo is currently in the process of searching for additional sea lions to bring to Tulsa.