Pet Scoop: Cincinnati Zoo’s 50th Gorilla Gets Special Name, Rescued Sea Lions Released
Published on September 14, 2015
Sept. 14, 2015: We’ve scoured the Web to find the best and most compelling animal stories, videos and photos. And it’s all right here.

Baby Gorilla Gets Special Name
A special baby born at the Cincinnati Zoo now has a special name. The birth of a critically endangered Western lowland gorilla on Aug. 25 marked the 50th gorilla birth at the zoo. Keepers came up with two names to reflect the baby girl’s unique status, and allowed the public to vote on them. They selected Elle, which means girl and is a play on L, the Roman numeral for 50. The other choice was Goldie, since gold is representative of 50. “It is a very rare thing for any zoo to have 50 babies born and we wanted that to be recognized in the baby’s name,” said Ron Evans, the zoo’s curator of primates. Elle is the first baby for her mom, 14-year-old Anju. — Read it at Zooborns
Veteran With Service Dog Asked to Leave Restaurant
A Chicago restaurant is apologizing to Maj. Diggs Brown, who retired from the Army Special Forces, after insisting he couldn’t have his service dog at his side. Brown said the black Labrador Retriever, Arthur Barker Black, helps him cope with his post-traumatic stress disorder. After he ordered breakfast Saturday at Cochon Volant, he said he was told the dog couldn’t be in the restaurant. He tried to explain that the Americans with Disabilities Act allowed him to bring the service dog into public places but the manager said, “I don’t care.” Brown said he was “a little bit humiliated” by the incident. The restaurant’s management has now apologized twice on Facebook. The establishment also said it would train its employees on the ADA, and made a donation to Puppies Behind Bars, which is the group that trained Arthur. “I have no animosity towards this restaurant," said Brown, who lives in Colorado. "It’s just a fact of life that a lot of people are not aware of the ADA laws and how they pertain to service dogs or service animals." — Read it at the Chicago Tribune
Killer Bees Spreading North in California
Twenty-one years after they arrived in California, Africanized bees have moved as far north as the state’s delta region, which is 25 miles south of Sacramento, said researchers from the University of California, San Diego. The so-called “killer” bees make up 65 percent of the honeybee population in San Diego County, the scientists found. "The pattern of Africanization we documented in San Diego County and elsewhere in California appears consistent with patterns previously documented in Texas, where Africanized honey bees first appeared in the United States," Joshua Kohn, a co-author of the new study. The aggressive bees now live throughout the South and in Western coastal regions, but colder temperatures have kept them from setting up permanent colonies in the Northern part of the U.S. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE. — Read it at Live Science

Four Rehabbed Sea Lions Released
Han, Job, Kukin and Fabiana happily slid off a boat to return to their ocean home in Peru over the weekend. The sea lions were starving and dehydrated when they were rescued by marine biologists. They spent two months being nursed back to health at a rehabilitation center. "These sea lions are survivors of various illnesses which they contracted off the coast of Peru caused by the phenomenon of El Nino,” said Carlos Yaipen, who helped the animals recover. They were released at Palomino island, in Callao, Peru, where they joined more than 3,000 other sea lions. — Read it at BBC News and watch it at Reuters
Bears Play on Hammock
A mom and her two cubs frolicked on a hammock in the backyard of a Washington, New Jersey, home recently. The homeowners caught the family’s playtime on video from the safety of their home. Their dog, who was also inside, can be heard growling and barking (with a little uncertainty) at the intruders on the video. The footage was posted on YouTube late last week. This is the second time in a month that bears have been caught having a great time in a New Jersey backyard. Just last month, a video of a bear family going for a dip in the pool in the backyard of another New Jersey home went viral. — Watch it at the Huffington Post