Martha Rial, Post-Gazette
	Seahawk, the new male sea lion at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, noses out of his pool yesterday. He will remain in quarantine for 30 days.
	Seahawk rests alongside his pool at the zoo. The one-year-old sea lion, already been nicknamed "Hawk" by zoo staff because of the football rivarly with Seattle, He will be on display for the public in about 60 days.

A young California sea lion that thwarted several attempts to return it to the Pacific Ocean will now be calling Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium home.

After flying in on the red-eye from San Francisco to Cleveland, Seahawk arrived at the zoo yesterday in Kids Kingdom curator Henry Kacprzyk's "Steelermobile."

"His first ride was in a black-and-gold Pontiac Aztec with Steeler plates," Mr. Kacprzyk said. "I was worried to go to Cleveland with the car, mind you."

The sea lion will probably be nicknamed Hawk. No one knows how he got his name, but it likely happened in January.

"There could be a football connection," Mr. Kacprzyk said. "Had we lost the Super Bowl, we may not have kept his name. Pittsburghers are forgiving when we win."

Hawk will be quarantined for 30 days before visitors will see him in the exhibit.

Yesterday was his first birthday, according to a date estimated by his previous handlers. As Mr. Kacprzyk put it, "He is still a baby. He's got quite a bit of growing to do."

Hawk weighs about 70 pounds. A mature male weighs on average 600 to 800 pounds. A zoo maintenance crew babyproofed the quarantine area so that the youngster couldn't stick his head through the gate bars and inadvertently hurt himself.

The sea lion was likely orphaned or separated from his mother during a bad storm, Mr. Kacprzyk said. Beach-goers and boaters in Sausalito, near San Francisco, spotted him in January.

"It was going up to people looking emaciated, weak, begging," the curator said.

The Marine Mammal Center took Hawk in, got him healthy, and then released him about 8 miles offshore, near a large group of sea lions. But he eventually made his way back to the beach.

They tried again, dropping the sea lion farther out, and "it literally came back about the same time the boat did," Mr. Kacprzyk said.

After a third attempt, authorities deemed Hawk "nonreleasable" and, because he could get hurt by passing boats or the unscrupulous, they searched for another option.

When Hurricane Katrina wiped out an oceanarium in Mississippi, Pittsburgh Zoo officials offered to care for several sea lions that were displaced.

Those animals did not come here, but a staff person at the National Marine Fisheries Service remembered the offer when trying to find a solution for Hawk, and contacted Mr. Kacprzyk last month.

"A number of facilities are interested in sea lions, [so] I feel very fortunate we have been selected," he said.

Pittsburgh Zoo has three female sea lions, two 11-year-olds and a 30-year-old.

When Hawk saw them, "he made some barking noises," Mr. Kacprzyk said.

"He's much more inquisitive and interested in them. They seem to be a little suspicious or suspect of him."

When he matures in a few years, it's likely that he will be bred with one of the younger females.

The zoo can take care of about six sea lions, and other facilities would like to have them, too, the curator said.

Meanwhile, before the testosterone kicks in and potentially makes him more aggressive, Hawk will be trained for animal husbandry, vet procedures and fun exercises.

"We should have him integrated really well into our program before he has changes in his behavior related to hormones," Mr. Kacprzyk said.

The first thing keepers will train Hawk to do is target, meaning go to an assigned place in the pool and touch it with his nose. Doing it correctly will win him a treat.

Mr. Kacprzyk said that the youngster is already so trusting that he ate out of a keeper's hand.