ARTIS is saying goodbye to its sea lions after nearly a hundred years. The Amsterdam zoo has new plans for the site, and the enclosure no longer meets current standards. The last three sea lions are going to the Singapore zoo.
ARTIS has new plans for the part of the park where the California sea lions reside. The zoo considered which animals could be offered good living conditions in the long term. The sea lion enclosure no longer meets current requirements. Therefore, it was decided to wave goodbye to the sea lions after nearly a hundred years.
The basin was built in 1980 according to the animal welfare requirements at the time, a spokesperson for the zoo tells NU.nl. These have been tightened over the years, which means that the enclosure in ARTIS no longer fully meets current requirements.
The Party for the Animals recently reported the poor housing to Meldpunt 144 for animal neglect and abuse. The ARTIS spokesperson says that the zoo was already working on relocating the animals at that time. “A long and complicated process,” she says.
The sea lions used to be five in number. Two of those five have already been transferred to another zoo in Europe. During this transition phase, ARTIS wants to improve living conditions. “By making the group smaller, you create more room to move for the rest.”
Possibly already a hundred years in ARTIS
ARTIS is ‘in an advanced stage’ to transfer the last three female sea lions to the Singapore zoo. There, they will be in a larger enclosure with even more sea lions. “That’s nice for them, because they are social animals.”
ARTIS has had sea lions since at least 1928, but possibly longer. That is (not yet) entirely clear in the archives, the spokesperson says. The concrete departure date of the three sea lions is also not yet known. This should become clear before the end of 2025.
“The animals are very popular, both among the employees and among the visitors,” says the ARTIS spokesperson. That is why there are mixed feelings, according to her: it is the best for the animals, but a pity for the sea lion lovers.