6/20/12

Roxie is 22 Years Young

To continue along with the birthday theme of the summer, we just celebrated Roxie's 22nd birthday on Friday. She is the oldest of all of our fur seals and second oldest in the country. She lives here at the New England Aquarium with 5 other fur seals, including her daughter Ursula, as well as two California sea lions.

Of course we had to celebrate in fashion...with a fish cake, complete with 22 "capelin candles" around the edge!


To make this cake even more delicious we added in some jello, which many of the seals enjoy as part of enrichment or just as an added bonus in their meals—seals naturally get water from the fish they eat, but jello can give them additional hydration as well.


Roxie enjoyed her cake slightly differently than many other seals would. Instead of just diving right in and devouring all of the fish in less than a minute, she used her whiskers to feel around the tray and carefully pick out each individual fish. Now this technique wasn't just used randomly; Roxie actually relies on her whiskers very heavily throughout most parts of her day because she is blind. Her whiskers allow her to pick up additional information such as objects or animals in front of her, or in this case it helps her find the fish.


Check out this video to see how she uses those whiskers to enjoy her cake.


Happy birthday Roxie!!
Posted by Erin W. at 4:40 PM
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