North American River Otter
The Palm Beach Zoo staff welcomed two North American river otter pups into the collection on December 23, 2009. This long-awaited birth is a result of a PMP (Population Management Plan) recommended pairing through the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums). The two male pups weighed only 170 grams a week after birth. Now they are nearly as large as their parents and can be seen swimming and frolicking in their aquatic habitat in the Florida Wetlands exhibit. The pups' dam, "Louise", the zoo's nine-year old female otter, originally came from the Lowry Park Zoo and has proven to be a great mother. Male North American river otters have no active role in parental care of offspring. "Sully", the pups' sire, is an orphaned animal from the wild in Florida that was donated to the zoo in 2002 by the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Lontra Canadensis
- With a range that encompasses most of the US, otters are a common resident to local waterways and bodies of water.
- Mainly carnivorous, otters eat fish, small rodents, insects, crustaceans and sometimes fruits and/or vegetation.
- Being a mustelid, otters mark their territory with musky secretions and feces.
- Otters can have delayed implantation of embryos to the uterine wall to ensure that the offspring may be born during a healthy season lush with plenty of prey.
Location at Palm Beach Zoo
- Florida Wetlands Otter Exhibit
