ZooBorns

Update! It's a Girl Otter Pup

Remember the Sea Otter pup from the Seattle Aquarium? You can read all about the birth and see pictures in our ZooBorns article from January 16. At that time, the baby was only two days old, having come into the world on January 14. The mother otter, Aniak, and her baby have stayed so close together that the sex of the baby was unknown.

But recently Aniak's pup got her first vet exam. She was weighed and examined while mom stayed near, happily eating some fish, allowing the vet to determine that the baby is a female. See it all in the video below.

Photo Credit: Seattle Aquarium

Seattle's Brand New Sea Otter Pup Bonds With Mom

The Seattle Aquarium announced Saturday the birth of a new Sea Otter pup at its facility on Pier 59 in Seattle. The young Otter was born Saturday Jan. 14 just before 5:00AM to the mother otter Aniak—who herself was born at Seattle Aquarium in 2002.

“We are so excited to welcome this new creature into the Aquarium family,” said Traci Belting curator of mammals and birds. “We’ll be observing the mother and pup round the clock to evaluate the health of each in the days ahead.”

Because Sea Otter pups stay so close to their mothers in the days after birth and because Otter fur is so thick, Aquarium staffers do not yet know whether the pup is a male or a female. Close monitoring of mother and pup by an “otter watcher” team will continue for at least four weeks.

Meet Libby, Point Defiance Zoo's Sea Otter

Little Libby was found orphaned off the coast in California late April. She is the youngest and smallest sea otter that Monterey Bay Aquarium has successfully rehabilitated. She arrived at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium on November 2 and is currently 30 pounds. Libby has formed a close bond with Point Defiance's next youngest sea otter, Kaladi, and the two of them love to splash and play!

Photo credits: Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

Miami's Newest Giant Otter Babies!

Miami Metroparks Zoo welcomes its second litter of Giant River Otter pups this year! The two pups, born November 3rd, are almost a foot long and weigh about a pound each. When fully grown, Giant Otters can reach up to six feet in length and weigh close to 75 pounds! These endangered carniverous mammals are native to South America and live in remote areas of the tropics by lakes and fresh water rivers.

More otterageous photos below the fold...

Five More Otter Pups Make a Family of Eleven!

There's a new crew at the water's edge at the Santa Barbara Zoo - a second litter of baby Asian small-clawed Otters, five in all! Born on May 21, at fourteen weeks old and weighing 3.3 pounds, the new pups have been kept in a den by their parents behind the scenes until they grew their waterproof fur, and were old enough to swim and eat solid food.

The babies join their six older siblings who, at just over a year old help mom and dad in the care of the new pups, thus learning important pup-rearing skills for their own future as parents. This makes for a total of thirteen otters in the group. Their exhibit’s three-foot deep pool has been sectioned off for the new pups’ safety and will reopen next week when the pups are mature enough to dive. The Santa Barbara Zoo reports this whole passel of otters is delighting their guests!

Photo Credit: Sheri Horiszny/Santa Barbara Zoo

The parents - mom, Jillian, and dad, Bob - arrived at the Zoo in 2010 and were paired as part of a cooperative breeding program of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Jillian is one year and ten months old and was born at the Bronx Zoo. Bob, aged three years and six months, came from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

 

L.A. Zoo Baby Boom Kicked Off With Rare Otter Pups

On July 10, L.A. Zoo welcomed the birth of two Giant Otter pups. Zoo staff are currently caring for the Otters at the Winnick Family Animal Care Center. They can be viewed through nursery windows. Once they have matured enough they will go out on-exhibit. Giant Otters are extremely rare in zoos and are exhibited in only five U.S. institutions. Native to the slow moving streams, lakes and swamps in the Orinoco, Amazon and La Plata river systems of South America, the IUCN endangered mammals face challenges from illegal poaching and chemical water pollution. Keep an eye out for L.A. Zoo's other current critters!

Photo credits: Tad Motoyama

Piles o' Pups for Santa Barbara Zoo

Bob and Jillian, the Santa Barabara Zoo's two parent Asian small-clawed otters, have produced another healthy litter of pups (not yet on view) and they recently opened their little eyes for the first time! The new litter of 3 females and 3 males was born on May 21 and they are being raised and cared for in their off-exhibit nesting box by mom and dad and the pair's first litter of 5 pups born last August. As in the wild where the parents keep their pups in a den, these young otters will not leave their behind-the-scenes nesting area for several months; keepers estimate early August.

 

Photo credits: Sheri Horiszny

Dropping the Otter Bomb at Oakland Zoo

On February 15th, Ginger, the Oakland Zoo's four-year-old female North American River Otter, gave birth to her first litter; one male named Ahanu and one female named Tallulah. Each pup weighed approximately 100 grams at birth, and were about the size of a stick of butter.

River Otters are one of the few species that exhibit a phenomenon called delayed implantation. This means otters breed in the spring but the fertilized egg doesn’t actually implant until fall. Since North American River otters are not very prolific breeders, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums makes annual breeding recommendations. When Ginger arrived at the Oakland Zoo in 2008, she was just one year old and too young to breed, but the Association of Zoo and Aquariums eventually wanted her to breed with our twelve year old male Heath.

Photo credits: Oakland Zoo

More photos below the fold...

Zoo Miami Makes History with Giant Otter Pups

For only the second time in history, Giant River Otters have been successfully bred at a North American zoo. Born January 31st at Zoo Miami, there are two pups, one male and one female, each weighing between 2 and 3lbs. While they might be small now, these pups will grow up to be truly giant at a length of 6ft and a weight of around 75 lbs.! This landmark event represents the culmination of years of collaboration between Zoo Miami, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Cali Zoo in Columbia and the Brazilian Institute of the Environment.

Photo credits: Ron Magill / Zoo Miami

Since their birth, the parents and pups have been left alone in seclusion because of how sensitive they can be to external activity. After giving the parents and pups several weeks alone to bond and establish themselves, they were briefly separated yesterday (for the first time) so that the Zoo’s veterinarian could perform a neonatal exam on the newborns.  Neither of the pups has opened their eyes yet but all indications from the quick exam are that they appear to be healthy and strong.

A first-time mother, Kara was born at the Philadelphia Zoo in March of 2005 and arrived at Zoo Miami on June 4th, 2008.  She is on loan from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources in Brazil.  The first time father’s name is “Witoto,” and he is on loan from the Cali Zoo in Cali, Colombia where he was born in April of 2004.  This is truly an international collaboration in an effort to preserve this extremely rare animal!  The pair has been a visitor favorite at “Amazon and Beyond” since the exhibit’s opening in 2008.

More photos below the fold!

Checking in with Ollie the Orphan Sea Otter

Photo credits: Aquarium of the Pacific

Aquarium visitors have the chance to take a sneak peek at the newest furry baby animal at the Aquarium of the Pacific through daily behind-the-scenes tours as of Friday, Dec. 10. The three-month old orphaned Sea Otter was stranded and rescued off of Santa Cruz when she was just weeks old.