A nice Kings Beach image:
NYC – Prospect Park Zoo: California Sea Lion – feeding time
Image by wallyg
The California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) is a coastal sea lion of the northern Pacific Ocean. Possessing of a streamlined body with a layer of blubber under the skin to provide warmth and buoyancy, males can nonetheless grow up to 600 pounds and 8 feet long. As a marine mammal, they are equally adept in water as they are on land. California Sea Lions feed on a wide-variety of seafood including fish, shellfish, and squid. They are highly sociable and gather in large numbers on beaches and coasts.
Their large eyes help them adjust to low levels of light in underwater environments, while their whiskers augment their sense of touch. Their nostrils automatically close once they hit the water. Their long front flippers rotate outward for better movement on land, and propel them forward in water. Males grow a large crest of bone on the top of their heads as they reach sexual maturity, and it is this that gives the animal its generic name (loph is "forehead" and za- is an emphatic; Zalophus californianus means "Californian big-head").
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The Prospect Park Zoo, Brooklyn’s only Zoo, is home to nearly 400 animals of more than 80 species. First established as a small menagerie in Prospect Park in the late 1800’s, this collection of animals became the more formal Prospect Park Zoo on Flatbush Avenue that opened to the public on July 3, 1935. A Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, the Zoo was part of a massive city-wide park improvement program initiated and executed by former Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. Closed in 1988 for a five year, million dollar renovation program, the zoo was completely replaced save for the exteriors of the 1930’s-era buildings. Rededicated on October 5, 1993, it joined Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) world-renowned network of wildlife parks in New York City.
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