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Sea lion saved from Interstate 880

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  • Sea lion saved from Interstate 880

    Fuente.- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BAOV18BGCH.DTL

    A young sea lion was rescued Monday after it was found roaming Interstate 880 in Oakland, a month after a similar incident in Richmond.

    The whiskered sea creature, believed to be a year old, was found waddling on the center divide of northbound I-880 near the Oakland Coliseum about 5:45 a.m., authorities said. An Oakland police officer corralled the sea lion and put it inside a patrol cruiser and drove to the Oakland Animal Shelter on 29th Avenue.
    Marjorie Boor, a staffer at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, responded to the animal shelter's request for help snagging the sea lion.
    But that was no easy task.
    Boor and police officers tried to coax the sea lion from the backseat of the patrol car and into an animal crate. But the sea lion managed to slip out the door and hid underneath the car.
    It played a game of hide-and-seek until about 6:45 a.m., when the group finally got it inside. From there it was on to the Marine Mammal Center.
    The sea lion has been given the name Fruitvale, after the Oakland neighborhood where the animal shelter is located.
    The pup is "very active and alert" but slightly malnourished, center spokesman Jim Oswald said. Staffers at the center don't yet know whether the pup is male or female, he said.
    On May 21, a male sea lion pup was found on the Richmond Parkway and taken to the mammal center. That animal died of malnourishment.
    Last year, the Sausalito center rescued 813 animals, including 486 sea lions. On average, about half of rescued animals are released back into the wild, Oswald said.
    Unlike harbor seals, which are almost immobile on land, sea lions can romp along on their flippers and spend time out of the water.
    The newly expanded center has seen an increase in the number of skinny and ill sea lions on California beaches, apparently as the result of fluctuating ocean conditions that may be depleting their food supply. Eighty-two of the 122 patients now at the center are sea lions.
    E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
    This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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