A 17-year-old South American sea lion named Hugo has died at Liberec Zoo in the Czech Republic after ingesting a doll's head that became lodged in his digestive tract, the zoo announced Saturday.
Keepers discovered the animal's body on Saturday morning, and a subsequent necropsy revealed the doll's head in his gastrointestinal system. Staff had retrieved the object from the sea lion pool two days earlier. Zoo spokesperson Barbora Tesařová said the foreign object very likely triggered the chain of events that led to Hugo's death.
Hugo was the zoo's only sea lion at the time of his death. Liberec Zoo has kept South American sea lions since 1975, with more than 20 individuals having passed through the exhibit. The zoo has called an extraordinary press conference for Monday.