Sea lion Hugo dies at Liberec Zoo — a doll's head found in his stomach

A sea lion named Hugo has died at Liberec Zoo. According to zoo spokeswoman Barbara Tesařová, who spoke on Saturday afternoon, the animal's body was discovered in the morning by staff caring for the animals.

"Hugo's death has hit everyone at the zoo very hard, and we ask people to treat the situation with understanding and respect," Tesařová said. According to her, a necropsy carried out immediately after the discovery revealed an unexpected detail: a doll's head was found in the sea lion's digestive tract — the very same one that staff had fished out of the pool two days earlier.

It appears that the foreign object was what triggered the chain of events leading to the animal's death. However, the zoo intends to draw final conclusions once laboratory test results come back — those results are not yet ready.

What happens to the exhibit now

The zoo has called an extraordinary press conference for Monday, where it plans to disclose further details of the incident and outline its next steps.

Liberec Zoo has kept sea lions since 1975, and more than 20 individual animals have passed through the exhibit over the years. Hugo was the only sea lion currently in the zoo's collection. "Our zoologists are already arranging for new animals to arrive, and we're preparing the necessary upgrades to the sea lion pavilion. We hope these pinnipeds will soon return to Liberec," the zoo said in a statement on Facebook.

South American sea lions live in the wild along the coast of South America, favoring sandy beaches. They are predators that feed on plankton, mollusks, fish, cuttlefish and octopuses. In captivity, they eat between seven and ten kilograms of fish a day. The species gets its name from the elongated fur on its neck, which resembles a mane. Males grow up to 2.5 meters long and weigh up to 250 kilograms, while females are noticeably smaller, at around 140 kilograms.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz