Local News in Brief : Laguna Beach : Houston Zoo Adopts Epileptic Sea Lion
An epileptic sea lion nursed back to health at the Marine Mammal Center here has become a resident of Texas.
Carly, a 5-year-old sea lion, had trouble finding a home because her illness requires daily medication, but she recently was adopted by the Houston Zoo.
David Ruhter, curator of mammals at the Texas zoo, said he picked Carly to be an attraction at the new $400,000 McGovern Mammal Marina because she is friendly.
“A lot of the animals that were offered to us were biters and didn’t like people at all,” Ruhter said.
Carly was stranded on a San Diego beach in 1984 and was sent to an animal behavior laboratory at UC Santa Cruz, where she developed epilepsy, according to Judi Jones, Carly’s handler.
The sea lion was nursed back to functional good health at Friends of the Sea Lion’s Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.
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