We have three giant baby otters!

This is the third time we have been able to breed these largest otters in the world, Zoo Zlín is the only zoological garden in Czechia keeping this exact species. Breeding of them is very demanding, a major problem is the high mortality of the whelps shortly after birth.

 The parental couple, the ten-year-old sow Mora and the thirteen-year-old boar Dagget, proved to be dutiful parents. Otter puppies are born blind and completely defenseless after the three-month gestation of the sow, their eyes open at the age of approximately 45 days. „Our breeders focused on disturbing the otter family the least possible and entered the tropical hall only during feeding. Thanks to the installed cameras we could regularly check if the whelps are thriving and gaining weight. Currently the babies can see already, they are vital and thriving beautifully. Breeders estimate their weight to be little over a pound,“ explained Markéta Horská, the chief zoologist. The best time for observing the otter family is at 10.45. „The breeders feed otters in the outdoor exhibit at this time. The otters get freshwater fish four times a day, their diet is dominated by small carps and roaches. They eat approximately 27 pounds of fish every day,“ added Markéta Horská.

The giant otters firstly appeared in Zoo Zlín in 2012 when we opened a new exhibit including an outdoor tank. „At that time, two males from a german Zoo in Hagenbeck arrived. One of them was the father of the puppies, Dagget. We felt truly honored to receive the trust from the management of the European Giant Otter Rescue Program to start breeding these rare southern-american mammals. However, it took us another 7 years of work to receive a coveted otter female. Mora came in November 2019 from the english Zoo in Branton, the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. The first breeding succes came in October 2020, another litter followed in 2022. „The otter couple took an excellent care of all the pups from the very beginning. I would even say that Dagget is even more dutiful than Mora. He is the first one to run to the chirp of the little ones and in the terms of feeding he offers food to them before grabbing a fish for himself,“ said one of the breeders, Kristýna Polášková, with a smile. Currently, the visitors can see the entire otter family – including the 2 males from the 2022 litter – in the tropical hall. The adult ones can be also seen in the tank in front of Yucatan.

Giant river otters are native to the rainforests of South America. An essential component of their diet are freshwater fishes, but they are not shy to catch a caiman, a turtle or an anaconda. They make for the loudest otter species. Also, they are the most sociable ones and they form bevies with the headcount of 6-8. Their lodges are formed by family members, a parental couple surrounded by their grown-up young. In the adulthood they can weigh up to 66 pounds and grow from 100 to 130 cm in length. They are relatively long-lived animals with a lifespan of 26 years. They can be extremely fast amd agile in the water – based on their hunting abilities the native inhabitants of South America call them ‚water jaguars‘. They also move well on land and can run long distances between river beds and branches. Lobos de río, as they are also called, is an endagered species – the population in the wild is estimated to be only around 5,000 individuals.