7/7/10

What does hidden fish in an ice pile spell? FUN!

Well, if you're a Northern fur seal that is!

Roxie and Taz had a lot of fun behind the scenes before moving to the exhibit. (Learn more about their debut on exhibit from this earlier post, and there's video here!) Here is a clip from us doing a little ice pile play time. After half an hour, Taz decided that she needed to groom but Roxie was still plowing through the ice. To make it more interesting, a few pieces of smelt are hidden in the ice. Since both girls are visually impaired, it's very interesting to see how they react to different kinds of play time. This one was a big hit!




-Lindsay


Taz

7/5/10

A Warm Welcome for the New Fur Seals

There's a lot to celebrate this holiday weekend at the Aquarium's New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center. Many of you learned on this earlier post that two new fur seals debuted on Friday! The gang showed Roxie and Taz a very warm welcome all around. Take a look!




As you can see, Ursula greeted her mom right away with the customary nose-to-nose hello. Baranov, Isaac and JD joined in with some swim-by greetings. And of course, Cordova, the noisiest of our fur seals, shouted her welcome.



Even local media was on hand for this exciting event! (See coverage from NECN, WHDH Channel 7, WCVB Channel 5 and the Boston Herald!)

Swing by the Aquarium during the July 4th weekend to see the newest additions to the fur seal exhibit. There are now seven sleek fur seals waiting to meet you...

7/2/10

Two new fur seals, two times the fun

There was a family reunion today at the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center when two new northern fur seals joined our exhibit. The two new females, Taz and Roxie, are both related to Ursula, one of the three females already in the exhibit. Roxie is Ursula’s mom and Taz is an aunt. Taz and Roxie came up from the New York Aquarium last month, but they had to be in quarantine for 30 days before they could join the rest of the fur seals. Today was the big day when the doors to the quarantine area were opened. Ursula seemed to know something was up because she jumped up on the deck and headed to the quarantine area as the doors were opened.


Taz and Roxie both have cataracts and don’t see that well, so they made their way tentatively up the ramp, while Ursula waited impatiently on the deck. The minute the two new girls came on deck Ursula was at Roxie’s side, making “pup calls," the vocalizations that a young seal makes so its mother can identify it. Then Ursula and Roxie went nose to nose.


Ursula continued to follow Roxie around, even after both seals got in the water. In fact, there was a lot of sniffing and touching as all the seals checked out the newcomers.


Taz and Roxie’s introduction went really smoothly, and after about 20 minutes, everyone was ready to eat breakfast.