Visually impaired sea lions join group at New Orleans zoo

December 1, 2018

A pair of visually impaired 2-year-old sea lions has joined the four sea lions already at the zoo in New Orleans.

Audubon Zoo officials say in a news release that Ayah and Jolee were both malnourished when rescued along different parts of the California coast in June 2017.

Jolee has cataracts in both eyes, and had an injury in her left eye when she was found on an El Segundo jetty. She gets around by following Ayah, who lost her left eye to a small-caliber bullet found in her brain after she came to Audubon.

Ayah was found off the Malibu coast.

Both youngsters were nursed back to health at the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles. Its staff veterinarian, Lauren Palmer, says Audubon saved their lives by accepting them.

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Why an Escaped Jaguar Went on a Killing Spree at New Orleans Zoo

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | July 16, 2018 03:37pm ET

Nine animals have died since an escaped jaguar attacked them at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans on Saturday (July 14). But the jaguar didn't actually eat the animals — including red foxes, alpacas and an emu — so why did it attack so many?

The answer? The 3-year-old male jaguar likely went into a mode known as "surplus killing," in which a predator kills more prey than it can possibly eat at one time, said Howard Quigley, executive director of the jaguar program at Panthera, a global wildcat-conservation organization, who isn't involved with the jaguar at the Audubon Zoo.

"It just means that they go into a kind of excess killing mode," Quigley told Live Science. "There's evidence of mountain lions getting into sheep pens and killing 20 or 30 sheep. When they get the fight reaction, they go and make the kill, and if there's another accessible prey, they go and make the kill again." [On the Lam: 10 of the Greatest Animal Escape Artists]

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Deputy captures alligator outside Orleans Parish home

NEW ORLEANS - 

An alligator was captured by authorities outside an Orleans Parish home on Saturday.

Orleans Parish sheriff's deputies said the alligator, believed to be from the river, was seen by residents in the front yard of a home in the 6000 block of Annunciation Street.

The alligator was given to the Audubon Zoo unharmed, deputies said.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/Deputy-captures-alligator-outside-Orleans-Parish-home/-/9853400/15520248/-/af7jcz/-/index.html#ixzz20mfma8hT 

Here's a story with bite: 10 baby alligators stolen from Audubon Zoo

Early on the Fourth of July, someone broke into the Audubon Zoo's Swamp Gift Shop and stole 10 baby alligators from a tank there. Nine have been found and returned to the zoo, spokeswoman Katie Smith said, but the 10th alligator is still at large.

Eight of the reptiles were found the next day in a front yard in the Irish Channel, police said, and the ninth alligator was found later that day in Harvey in a car driven by two men who have been booked in Jefferson Parish with possession of stolen property.

They are Rodney Thornton, 29, and Kawayne Powell, 30. A New Orleans police spokesman said investigators haven't determined yet whether Thornton and Powell stole the alligators.

They have made bond, said Col. John Fortunato, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

The alligators in the shop's tank were not for sale, Smith said, but were on display to enhance the swamp atmosphere. The nine recovered reptiles are back at the zoo, she said, but they are not on display yet.

According to a police report, someone pried open the gift shop's door after breaking a pane of glass near the bottom latch.

The eight recovered alligators were found in a storage bin at Rousseau and Soraparu streets, the police report said, and a witness identified the stolen vehicle from which the creatures had been dumped.

That was the car in which Thornton, Powell and the ninth alligator were found in Jefferson Parish.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/07/heres_a_story_with_bite_10_bab.html