{"id":325758,"date":"2026-06-06T17:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T17:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/325758\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T17:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T17:12:09","slug":"houston-zoo-remembers-jonah-its-gentle-giant-sea-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/325758\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Zoo remembers Jonah, its gentle giant sea lion"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 Houston Zoo<\/a> visitors who spent time near the sea lion habitat likely remember Jonah \u2014 the California sea lion who was hard to miss, not just because of his size, but because of his personality.<\/p>\n

The Houston Zoo said Jonah died Thursday night at age 29. In a tribute<\/a> posted Friday, the Zoo said Jonah had recently shown signs of illness and was also dealing with age-related kidney disease. His animal care team stayed with him through the end, the Zoo said.<\/p>\n

Jonah, a California sea lion at the Houston Zoo, enjoying a cake for his 29th birthday. (Houston Zoo)<\/p>\n

Jonah\u2019s story started in Northern California, where the Zoo said he was found orphaned and severely underweight. After being rescued and rehabilitated, he eventually moved to the Houston Zoo in 2013 and quickly became a standout in the colony. The Zoo said he later fathered two pups, TJ and Max, and in 2023 moved with the group into the Zoo\u2019s newer Gal\u00e1pagos Islands habitat.<\/p>\n

Even at his biggest \u2014 the Zoo said Jonah could reach around 575 pounds during peak breeding season \u2014 staff described him as gentle and patient. The Zoo also shared one of his signature \u201cJonah\u201d quirks: if he thought he was waiting too long for food, he\u2019d tap his back left flipper as a reminder it was his turn.<\/p>\n

And for many Houstonians, Jonah was more than a Zoo favorite \u2014 the Zoo said he was featured in airport billboards, popped up in viral TikTok moments and even inspired a children\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

The Houston Zoo is encouraging guests to share favorite memories of Jonah so the team that cared for him can see them too.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Houston Zoo visitors who spent time near the sea lion habitat likely remember Jonah \u2014 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,18587,116504],"class_list":["post-325758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-zoo","tag-jonah-the-sea-lion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}