A man who sawed the head off a dead sea lion was being hunted in the US on Tuesday, the second time in less than a year that such a gruesome crime has been committed in California.

Officials say a middle-aged man used a hunting knife to remove the head of the California sea lion in July, and are offering $20,000 to anyone who can help bring him to justice.

“After sawing off the seal’s head, he placed the head in a zip-style plastic bag and left the area in a late-model white Cadillac Escalade,” said a statement released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement. It was not immediately clear why the notice was issued now, months after the crime.

The man — described as white, bald, with a full beard, and in his late 50s to ear

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