Aquarium of the Pacific | Aquarium Blogs | Hugh
I’ve been asked by visitors to the Aquarium what my favorite pinniped is. Most of them expect my answer to be either the California sea lion (like Miller) or the Harbor seal (like Ellie) because of how much I work and play with these critters. They are surprised when I tell them that the Elephant seal is actually my favorite. This is the story of how a young elephant seal once saved this volunteer from a mauling by a pack of wild animals.
In an odd paradox; when one visits the home of Skippy the Mudskipper one has to look underwater for snakes and above water for fish. Skippy and his mudskipper buddies are quite entertaining to watch so this week’s blog also includes a video of Skippy who acts more like a dog than a fish.
Just because you don’t have a handy sea lion around doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun training animals. Any critter can be trained as long as you know what makes it happy!
“Calamari in my hand---
Fancy name bestowed by man.
Kids will eat it with a bib---
To a seal it’s just a squid.”
The story of Loligo opalescens---aka Calamari or Market Squid
Lola is a cockatoo. How do I know this? Because Lola told me that he was. When program keeper Melissa had the bird on her arm and asked Lola “What are you?” Lola replied “COCKTOO!” Lola is one of the many program animals that our staff takes around the aquarium to interact with guests.
A husbandry volunteer since before the Aquarium opened (a Charter Volunteer), Hugh is a jack-of-all-trades who loves to spend his time with animals and shares his adventures via his photographs and tales.
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