The Nation - News from Dec. 13, 1988

Rocky, a sea lion who thinks he is a person, got kicked out of his Chicago home. The Lincoln Park Zoo said it was sending Rocky away, for a career in show business, for his own good. The 2-year-old animal’s problems began when his mother rejected him at birth and he wound up being hand raised by zookeepers, Carol Leifer, spokeswoman for the zoo, said. Rocky grew up under the impression he was human. “We even put him in a pool with a lovely female, young and shy. Any time she came near, Rocky went into a corner and shivered with fear,” she said. Today, Rocky will be loaded into a truck and sent to St. Louis where he will join a sea lion show.