At least four sea lions have been found with bullet wounds on L.A. County beaches since the year began, according to Peter Wallerstein, the founding director of Marine Animal Rescue. 

While at least one of the injured sea lions survived, the little fellow at right, a 9-month-old pup found Feb. 3 at Dockweiler Beach in Santa Monica Bay, was not so lucky.  Our colleague Alexandra Zavis at the L.A. Now blog has the details:

"When we arrived on scene we saw this little 30-pound, 9-month-old sea lion pup lying on the beach," Wallerstein said. At first glance, the animal appeared healthy. "Then he started dragging his back end like he couldn't move it," he said. "I was hoping it wasn't what I thought it was."

A radiograph confirmed that a bullet had severed the pup's spine and he had to be euthanized, Wallerstein said.

Marine Animal Rescue is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible. Wallerstein said that fishermen will sometimes injure or kill sea lions to keep them away from the fish, but that it was unusual to have so many shootings in such a short period of time.

Without more evidence, he said authorities with the National Marine Fisheries Service do not have the resources to hunt down those responsible, but he hoped that the reward would be an incentive for witnesses to come forward.

Anyone with information on the shootings was asked to call Marine Animal Rescue's 24-hour hot line at 1-800-39-WHALE.

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Peter Wallerstein / Marine Animal Rescue

Travis, a 200-pound chimpanzee who once starred in commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, was fatally shot by Stamford, Conn., police after he savagely attacked a female friend of his owner, Sandra Herold, 70. 

Charla Nash, 55, the victim of Travis' attack, went to Herold's home Monday to help her coax the chimp back into the home after it escaped. Travis lunged at Nash when she got out of her car; Herold went into the home to dial 911. 

While inside, she "retrieved a large butcher knife and stabbed her longtime pet numerous times in an effort to save her friend, who was really being brutally attacked," Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said. Herold also struck Travis with a shovel when, she told police, she found that the knife had no effect.  The Associated Press reports:

Nash was in critical condition today after suffering what Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy called "life-changing, if not life-threatening," injuries to her face and hands.

Her sister-in-law, Kate Nash, said this morning that Nash underwent surgery Monday night and came out of it "OK."

Herold and two officers also received minor injuries, police said. Conklin said police don't know what triggered the attack.

After the attack on Nash, Travis began roaming Herold's property until, when police arrived, he attempted to attack officers as well. The officers retreated to their squad cars, but one shot the chimp fatally when it opened a squad car door and began to get in. "He had no other recourse," Conklin said, because the animal had cornered him.

Blanca, a baby mandrill at Rome's Bioparco Zoo, is only about two weeks old now, but when she's fully grown she'll weigh up to 30 pounds (males can weigh 60 pounds or more). Adult mandrills, particularly males, are known for their bright facial coloring.

Mandrills are the world's largest species of monkey. They were once classified in the same genus as their relatives, baboons, but recent scientific research suggests that they should be regrouped into a new genus, Mandrillus.   

Mandrills are sometimes referred to as "forest baboons" and they live in the wild only in equatorial African rain forests. They have cheek pouches that allow them to store food (primarily fruit, roots, insects and small reptiles and amphibians) to be eaten later.

More pictures after the jump!

Proponents of letting seals remain on the beach at the Children's Pool in La Jolla are hoping for a big victory Tuesday at the San Diego City Council meeting.

The council is set to discuss a proposed resolution asking the state Legislature to add "marine mammal habitat" to the beach's allowed uses.

The 1931 law deeding the beach to the city does not mention marine mammals. That's one reason that  a judge has ordered the city to scoot the seals off the beach, lest their poop make the beach unusable for people.

The dispute between the pro- and anti-seal factions has raged in the courts and political process for nearly two decades. Dozens of seals lounge on the beach.

The council meets at 2 p.m., with both sides expected to be present. If the past is any indication, the session will be passionate.

--Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Marine mammals rest at the Children's Pool. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times.

Two sea lions recently rehabilitated at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach became the best of friends during their stay.  The sea lions, rescued on Huntington Beach within ten days of each other last November, arrived at the center malnourished and in need of some TLC.

"Sea lions are very social animals. Some just really bond with one another," Michele Hunter, the center's animal care director, told the Orange County Register. "You have the little buddies and stuff, but these two were just inseparable."

The Register took this moving video of their release back to the Pacific ocean. 

Video: Steve Zylius/Orange County Register

"God invented dogs for us, to give us the kind of uncompromising love that human beings need, and we in turn give them the same kind of love," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) at one of the few Washington events that we've ever been able to honestly say sounded like fun to us. (Hoyer spoke of Charlotte, the beloved English springer spaniel who shared his Washington office with him until her death, at age 15, in 2007.)

The Cannon Canine Honors reception, held Tuesday in the House Office Building Caucus Room, honored special dogs as well as members of Congress for their dog-related service. Connie Whitfield, a senior advisor to the Humane Society of the United States and the wife of Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), helped organize the reception, which was hosted by the HSUS.

Representatives who helped bring fallen soldiers' dogs home from the front, as well as the U.S. Capitol Police K-9 team, were recognized at the event. Our colleague Johanna Neuman at the Top of the Ticket blog has the details:

For starters, Army Spc. Justin Rollins and his dog Hero were honored along with Marine Cpl. Dustin Lee and his dog Lex. Both had been killed in combat, and their families -- with an assist from Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) -- were able to bring the dogs back to the United States and adopt them.

As Jerome Lee said at the awards ceremony, the 8-year-old bomb-sniffing Lex, a German shepherd, was at Dustin Lee's side March 21, 2007, when the Marine was killed by a rocket propelled grenade. Shrapnel from the explosion buried itself in Lex's back and side, and he nearly lost his tail.

"The family never asked for anything. They gave their son for this country, and the only thing they wanted was the dog he loved and had been his comrade in wartime," Rep. Jones said of the Lee family.

But the event wasn't all somber: It also included the first Congressional Photo Contest, in which staffers from congressional offices submitted photos of their pets. Honorees included Hoover, a bulldog owned by the chief of staff to Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), who was named "Barker of the House"; Lucy, a mixed-breed owned by the press aide to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who won "Senate Pawjority Leader"; and Camembert, a Labrador retriever owned by an aide to Rep. Whitfield, who won the distinguished title "Elder Statesdog." (Check out Top of the Ticket for photos of the winners.)

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at a news conference in Washington.  Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo / Bloomberg News

This is Heidi. Last year, she was "discovered" in the park by a pet talent agency; since then, she has embarked on a one-dog quest to break into the business. This is her Hollywood story as chronicled by Times staff writer Diane Haithman. And this is her “head shot”: That longing look was achieved by placing a biscuit just out of reach.

On Friday, Heidi was animated, to say the least, by her visit to the Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood. The wizards of motion-capture technology at the studios have created the new animated character Philbert the dog for the PBS educational series "Sid the Science Kid," which introduces preschoolers to basic scientific concepts.

Philbert, a dog Sid's grandmother adopts, makes his debut in the series of 10 new shows that begins today. "Sid" airs locally on KCET, which co-produces the program with the Jim Henson Co.  The animated dog was brought to life  by using a real dog, a Great Dane named Daisy, who performed on a motion capture stage at the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, where the dog's body movements are recorded and the facial expressions and barking are puppeteered (and barked) in real time by a Henson puppeteer.

Although dogs, horses and other animals have been used in motion-capture to create animated characters before, Philbert is the first animated dog created by this method to have a recurring role in a TV series. In the photo above, Heidi sits with digital puppeteer Bruce Lanoil as he uses hand and arm equipment to manipulate the face, neck and head of Philbert on the screen. Both the animated dog and Lanoil have their tongues out because Lanoil is at the same time adding the sound effect of panting.

"It takes the onus off the dog, since I have control of the neck and face -- the dog had to basically be on the set and be a dog, and not have to worry about motivation," Lanoil says. As to why the animators use the motion-capture process instead of starting from scratch, he adds, "It's the physical being of the animal in the space and how it moves; it is very, very difficult to replicate the grace and beauty of the animal in motion. It gives us a lot less to do."

As the U.S. looks foward to leaving Iraq, troops continue to train Iraqi police, including how to use canines in law enforcement.

U.S. Army Sgt. Tyler Barriere and Ruby, a military working dog, put on a demonstration recently for Iraqi police trainees at the Diwaniyah Police Academy.

--Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Sgt. Tyler Barriere and Ruby. Credit: U.S. Air Force.

We claw the Web so you don't have to.  Today, moral monkeys, the fight over a truck-stop tiger, and environmentalists and residents at odds over the woodpeckers that are making a mess of things in the Bay Area:

• Residents of the gated retirement community of Rossmoor (within the city of Walnut Creek and about 20 miles from San Francisco) are at odds with the community's other residents: woodpeckers.  The birds peck holes in window frames and decorative trim made from Styrofoam and covered by a thin layer of stucco.  Several homeowners' associations, after attempts to discourage the birds (including flapping Mylar balloons, chemical deterrents and a wooden owl) failed, have decided to shoot them instead.  Enter Audubon California, which argues that the best solution is not killing the birds but rather building wooden "granaries" where the birds can store acorns. The group offered to help the homeowners' associations build them.  (One homeowners' group took them up on the offer; another voted to continue killing the birds instead.) L.A. Times

• New research suggests that monkeys and apes have the ability to tell right from wrong and a basic sense of morality.  The findings, presented in papers at last weekend's annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), suggest that "there is enough evidence for the following of social rules to agree that some of the stepping stones towards human morality can be found in other animals," according to Emory University professor of psychology Frans de Waal.  De Waal and his colleagues rewarded monkeys with food or affection in return for completing simple tasks -- but some monkeys got a higher payoff than others.  Unlike the results of a recent, similar study involving dogs, the monkeys objected to being rewarded unfairly and often refused to participate further when they perceived their reward was less than that received by another monkey.  Another element of the research showed that chimpanzees exhibited altruism; they were willing to help other chimps and humans without any apparent reward for doing so.  De Waal believes such research shows that morality evolved through natural selection.  Times U.K.

• The fight over a Louisiana truck stop's caged tiger display will go to the Iberville Parish Council on Tuesday.  The council is set to decide whether Michael Sandlin
  -- who owns both the "Tiger Truck Stop" and its Siberian-Bengal tiger resident, Tony -- is violating a local ordinance by displaying the big cat.  Animal activists will be in attendance at the council meeting as well and will argue that Tony is being kept in an inhumane environment.  "Tony's in a cage, continuously inhaling diesel fumes, sloshing around in his own waste. ... It's sickening," said Sky Williamson, who's been vocal in her opposition of Sandlin's truck stop since 2005.  Williamson has joined forces with Big Cat Rescue, which maintains the Tampa, Fla., wildlife preserve where she hopes Tony will be "retired."  But Sandlin wants none of it.  "Hell will freeze over before Tony goes there," he said.  Fox News

• The Fishing Vessel Owners' Assn., which represents West Coast-based long-line fishermen, has instructed its members to use "streamer lines" in an effort to minimize the accidental killing of seabirds.  Birds, such as the endangered black-footed albatross, are known to dive after the fishermen's bait and can drown in the process.  Streamer lines -- polyester rope with dangling colored streamers -- create a "fence" that prevents the birds from diving after the bait.  Greenspace

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Damage surrounding a window was caused by woodpeckers in the Rossmoor community. 

Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times.

The San Francisco Zoo welcomed a baby western lowland gorilla last December 8.  The baby, a male, was rejected by his mother, Monifa, shortly after his birth. 

Zoo staff are instead raising the baby themselves, even taking turns sleeping through the night with him in a double bed and bottle-feeding him.  Despite his somewhat inauspicious beginning, the zoo's head gorilla keeper, Corinne MacDonald, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the baby is "extremely confident, calm and amazing, and he's ahead of schedule."

The gorilla, now 2 months old, is still missing one thing: a name.  Susan Derby at the Daily Travel & Deal blog has the details on the zoo's baby-naming contest:

Contest: Think up a name and submit it online. Before you go bananas with brainstorming, note that the zoo’s preference is "a distinguished name of African origin."

Judges will select five finalists from the submissions received. Now this is where things get rascally: Each of the five names will be connected to a different-colored stick of bamboo, and these sticks will be placed in front of a silverback gorilla who goes by the name Oscar Jonesy. Mr. Jonesy will  pick the winner.

Anyone 5 years of age or older can enter.

The contest runs through March 5 and Mr. Jonesy (the baby's father) will choose the winning name on March 11.  The contest winner will receive a family membership to the zoo closest to them, a large plush gorilla, a framed photo of the baby gorilla with his footprint, and a half-hour question-and-answer session with one of the zoo's gorilla keepers.  Check out the zoo's website for more information.

More photos after the jump!

Our colleague, sports columnist T.J. Simers, had never been to a dog show before he went to Madison Square Garden last week to cover Westminster, the grandaddy of them all. 

Simers has a longstanding reputation for offending (it's sort of his thing).  And, rather naturally, he heard from many dog fanciers who took offense at his coverage of Westminster.

Particularly irksome to many readers was Simers' use of the word "ugly" to describe Westminster's canine competitors, including his referral to Hound group winner Tiger Woods as "a malnourished mangy mutt, also known as a Scottish deerhound."

As reader Bill Todman Jr. commented, "The funny aspect of your Westminster Dog Show 'coverage' was you commenting on which animals were ugly. Talk about irony
-- you have to be one of those who looks in the mirror and sees Brad Pitt looking back. And since you haven't ever 'kissed a dog,' I know a 100-pound Rottweiler who would very much like to meet you in person."

Simers' response?  "Looking like Brad Pitt, I get this all the time."

Another big offender?  Simers' assertion that "No kid in America is safe as the Brussels griffon, the nasty little snapper, takes the next spot" as the winner of the Toy group.  (He'd be referring to little Lincoln, pictured here.)

Kiss me, you fool.

Funani (above), the female hippo at the San Diego Zoo, continues to make nice with Otis, a recent arrival from the Los Angeles Zoo. San Diegans hope hippo love will turn into hippo little.

--Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Funani. Credit: San Diego Zoo.

The Navy's plans to deploy bottle-nosed dolphins to protect its submarines in the Puget Sound have met with sharp criticism from animal activists, who say the waters in the Pacific Northwest inlet are too cold for dolphins.  And what's an activist without action?

A group called Knitting for Dolphins has an unusual method for drawing attention to its cause: knitting sweaters, hats and mittens for the dolphins.  The Navy has 78 of the animals, as well as 27 sea lions and a beluga whale -- all based in San Diego, where the water temperatures average 10 degrees higher than those of Puget Sound. 

"It's just a matter of being humane, or civilized, in acknowledging there's a reason why bottlenose dolphins, especially the warm-water Atlantic variety, do not exist in the water here. It's just too darned cold. And they don't have the physiology to adapt," dolphin biologist Toni Frohoff told our colleague Kim Murphy.

A federal judge denied the Navy's similar request for marine mammal use in the Puget Sound in 1989, but the Associated Press notes:

Since then, the Navy has taken the dolphins and sea lions to cold-water places like Alaska and Scandinavia to see how they cope.

"They did very well," [Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program] said. If the animals are sent to Washington, the dolphins would be housed in heated enclosures and would patrol the bay only for periods of about two hours.

But the promise of heated holding pens don't reassure activists. 

We love a dog with a flair for fashion.  Designer Isaac Mizrahi's description of Grey Gardens subject Little Edie Beale could, we think, aptly describe border collie Nasty Sassy as well:

"The way that we now make mistakes on purpose comes from Edie Beale. I'm still and always trying to match her sense of the absurd, her playfulness, her sense of the drama of clothing."

Sassy doesn't need fancy dog costumes.  She makes her own. We appreciate that.

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Nasty Sassy wears a Frisbee as a hat while she plays with her owner Ping Latvong at John Marshall Park in Anaheim.  Credit: Kari Rene Hall/Los Angeles Times.

What is it about pets that makes them such a perfect foil for their humans?  Clearly the unconditional love they provide is a big part, but a new documentary probes the question further.

"Why We Love Cats and Dogs," a new special from PBS' "Nature," premieres Sunday, Feb. 15, at 8 p.m.  The program explores the deep bond that exists between people and their companion animals. 

"The connections we make and the relationships we forge with these animals [regardless of specie] are meaningful and important and real; part logic, part magic but totally undeniable,"  Tracey Clark writes on PBS' Remotely Connected blog.  "Why We Love Our Cats and Dogs offers a delightfully entertaining (and family friendly) window into the richness of life as it is shared with our pets."

Southern California viewers can see the program Sunday at 8 on KCET Los Angeles, KOCE Orange County and KVCR San Bernardino.

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Racina Balaa, 12, plays with her dog Sugar at the Pasadena dog park.  Credit: Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times.

Could Cheeta the chimp, the famous performing primate who's said to have starred alongside Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan films and Rex Harrison in Dr. Doolittle, be an impostor?

It's a story whose plot resembles a 1930s screwball comedy, but author R.D. Rosen says it's true: Cheeta the chimp, said to be the oldest nonhuman primate in the world at 76, is not who he claims to be.  (Or rather, he's not who his deceased trainer, Tony Gentry, claimed he was.) 

In 2007, Rosen set out to write a book about Cheeta: his abduction from the wilds of his native Liberia; his storied history in Hollywood; his bizarre post-stardom life with trainer Gentry, who stipulated in his will that Cheeta be euthanized after his death, fearing no one else could provide the proper care for him; Gentry's subsequent reversal of that decision at the behest of a relative and fellow animal trainer, Dan Westfall, who runs the Palm Springs sanctuary to which Cheeta was eventually retired. 

It was plenty of fodder for a book.  As our colleague Scott Gold puts it, "If only it were true."  From Gold's story:

Cheeta's "birthday" has been celebrated, not on the anniversary of his birth, but on April 9, the anniversary of the day he supposedly landed in the United States. Rosen figured that point -- the dramatic account of Cheeta's arrival, with Gentry, according to legend, hiding him under a jacket on the Pan Am flight -- was a logical place to begin his research.

It didn't take long for the first discrepancy to surface. It turned out, Rosen said, that the sort of flight Gentry had described wasn't available commercially until 1939 -- seven years after Gentry supposedly smuggled Cheeta into the U.S.

Rosen initially dismissed the story's inconsistency as an honest mistake.  But odd discrepancies began to add up.

These babies are capybaras, cousins of guinea pigs and chinchillas, and though they start out small (these babies are pictured at about a month old), they can grow to weigh 140 pounds.

The word capybara is derived from a Guarani word meaning master of the grasses, although its scientific name, hydrochaeris, is Greek for the much less impressive-sounding water hog.

Capybaras are semi-aquatic mammals that can be found in the wild in many areas of South America (although these are residents of Germany's Hannover Adventure Zoo).

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Holger Hollemann/EPA

Funani, the female hippo at the San Diego Zoo, met her new partner, Otis, a transfer from the Los Angeles Zoo, on Friday morning, anxious zoo officials announced.

The hope is that Funani and Otis produce offspring. Funani, 24, has three surviving offspring by Jabba (all of whom, once they got big, were sent to other zoos).

In hopes of strengthening the gene pool, Jabba was swapped to the Los Angeles Zoo for Otis, who is 34 years old and a trim 4500 pounds. Otis arrived earlier this week in San Diego.

His first meeting with Funani in the Ituri Forest exhibit brought a bit of rough play, zoo officials said. Funani chased Otis from the pool. Otis refused to back down. Both opened their mouths and banged into each other.

"This is typical hippotamus dominance behavior," said animal care supervisor Matt Akel.

--Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Funani and Jazi, one of Funani's offspring by Jabba. Now Jabba has been traded to the Los Angeles Zoo for Otis. Credit: Los Angeles Times.

California state Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) has introduced a bill, SB 135, which would outlaw the common procedure of docking dairy cows' tails except "during an individual treatment, emergency or operation, if the treatment or operation is performed by a veterinarian for veterinary purposes" with proper anesthesia. 

"With no added benefit to the safety of our food supply, tail docking is nothing more than needless animal cruelty which must be stopped," Florez said.  "I believe the dairy industry will find that living up to California's claim of 'happy cows' is a win-win with a positive benefit to them as well, as decreasing stress in dairy cows ultimately leads to increased milk production."

Proponents of tail docking say the practice improves hygiene in dairy cows.  But it's illegal in many parts of Europe, including the U.K. and the Netherlands.  It's opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Assn. except in the case of medical necessity; the group's stated position is that the practice "provides no benefit to the animal and that tail docking can lead to distress during fly seasons."

"Scientific studies have shown that mutilation of the tail causes serious welfare problems for dairy cows, including distress, pain and increased vulnerability to insect attacks," Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture for the Humane Society of the United States, said in a press conference today.  "Tail-docking never had a scientific rationale, and it's been exposed now as little more than a routine and pointless type of mutilation."

On Sunday, bulldog fanciers from far and wide will gather at Long Beach's Marine Stadium to celebrate their favorite breed. 

The fifth annual Bulldog Beauty Contest, billed as the largest gathering of bulldogs in the world, allows entrants to strut down a 100-foot red carpet in "a competition where gender is no limitation and good looks are no advantage."  And that's only the beginning of the festivities, which also include a French bulldog pageant and, new this year, a pug pageant and a senior dog pageant (open to entrants of all breeds and mixes). 

Vendors and a pet adoption fair (featuring available pets from rescue groups including Southern California Bulldog Rescue, French Bulldog Village Rescue, Boston Buddies, Dharma Rescue and Best Friends Animal Society) will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Pageant schedule is:

Pug Pageant: 11 a.m.
French Bulldog Pageant: noon
Senior Dog Pageant: 12:45 p.m.
Bulldog Pageant: 1:30 p.m.

Marine Stadium is at 5225 E. Paoli Way in Long Beach.  Front-row seats for the pageants are available for a $5 fee.  Parking is free (a lot is accessible from Nieto Avenue), but event organizers advise allowing plenty of time to park. 

The event is a fundraiser for Haute Dogs, a Long Beach-based group which describes its mission as "to help inspire a better understanding and appreciation of dogs, dispel damaging myths, encourage responsible ownership practices, and offer practical adoption and rescue opportunities."

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Skateboard aficionado Darla Bell and her owner Darrin Stout at a previous Bulldog Beauty Contest. 

Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times.