Birthday party postponed for El Paso Zoo’s Sea Lions
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- You can still visit the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens today, but unfortunately, their two sea lions won't be celebrating their birthday party after all. At least, not today.
"We're not really in the mood of partying today, sadly. We're not feeling very motivated today. We're, like, super, super full today. We don't, we're not interested in training or interacting with our keepers. We just want, they just want to sleep today," Grecia Alvarado told ABC-7 during an intervew.
She's talking about Delilah and Dichali, the zoo's two California sea lions. Grecia is a Zookeeper at the El Paso Zoo.
Today's triple-digit heat made both animals and people sluggish.
The zoo planned to celebrate the sea lion's birthday's today with a party open to the community.
"This is a behavior that happens a lot. And for sea lions, this is actually seasonal behavior during the summertime. Sea lions tend to have way less interest in food and more interested in just laying down under the sun," said Grecia.
She says what looks like "tricks" during the sea lion shows are also termed "behaviors."
They help with blood draws, vet checks and daily health monitoring.
"This is also a behavior they choose to do or not to do. There's nothing we can do about it if they really don't want to do them. We're not going to, we're going to step aside to the following behavior," said Grecia.
Another reason the zoo won't force this pair to perform, especially on their birthday.
"We cannot do them, do these girls do anything they don't want to. And today, they really didn't want to train, and we didn't want to call everyone in to just see them sleeping, as you can see them," said Grecia.
Grecia says they'll still throw a birthday party for Delilah and Dichali.
"We're still planning on doing it. Same stuff included, it's just going to be postponed. Maybe a month or two, whenever they are already ready to, to feed again," Grecia told ABC-7's Olivia Vara during the interview.
