{"id":622668,"date":"2026-10-06T22:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T22:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622668\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T22:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T22:02:13","slug":"mum-sea-lion-statue-up-sticks-from-st-clair-for-spruce-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622668\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mum\u2019 sea lion statue up sticks from St Clair for spruce up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"The sculpture of “Mum” the sea lion and her pup has been removed from St Clair Esplanade for repairs. Photo: Peter McIntosh <\/p>\n

The\u00a0sculpture of the sea lion matriarch affectionately known as \u201cMum\u201d and her\u00a0pup\u00a0has been\u00a0removed from St Clair Esplanade for minor repairs.<\/p>\n

The work was\u00a0estimated to cost about\u00a0$10,000 and\u00a0involved\u00a0\u201cextensive sanding and preparation, filling of degraded fibreglass areas and a complete re-painting\u201d, a Dunedin City Council\u00a0spokesman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some stage, someone repainted the smaller sea lion and other areas with house paint, which is being completely removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0polyurethane and fibreglass statue, sculpted by local artist Bryn Jones, was unveiled in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Seen here in 2023, New Zealand sea lion Moana, 11, snoozes metres away from a statue of her great-grandmother “Mum” on the St Clair Esplanade. Photo: Gerard O’Brien <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair\u00a0would be repainted in colours originally used by the artist.<\/p>\n

In late 1993, Mum became\u00a0the first sea lion in more than 100 years to give birth on the mainland.<\/p>\n

Before then, New Zealand sea lions had been hunted to extinction on the mainland and bred only in the Subantarctic Islands.<\/p>\n

Her descendants will return to Otago\u2019s coast in the coming months for breeding season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ruby.shaw@odt.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sculpture of “Mum” the sea lion and her pup has been removed from St Clair Esplanade for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-622668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}