North American River otters Swim and Live Happy at The Pueblo Zoo

Written and submitted by Diane Tomecek

Freyja (turned away), Odin (center) and Thor (right)

Her name is Thelma.  She is a 9-year-old North American River otter with only three limbs who, as a young otter, was frightened to swim.  Her new sister, Freyja, an eight-month-old juvenile, has also faced difficulties in her young life.  They both, along with two male river otters, have idyllic homes at The Pueblo Zoo in Colorado. Why? Because The Pueblo Zoo has heart.  That’s what any visitor will think after a day there, especially a day visiting these four at their North American River otter exhibit.  For Thelma and Freyja, especially, finding a home at the zoo was like a dream come true. 

The Pueblo Zoo was established early in the twentieth century and was a city run facility until January 1991 when the Pueblo Zoological Society took over operations as a non-profit organization and has continued to care for the facility and its animals since then.

One might ask, ”Why river otters at The Pueblo Zoo?”  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs and The Denver Zoo both have river otters, so why Pueblo as well?  Simply put, the fun and playful antics of otters make them a very popular exhibit at any facility.  Additionally, the public had asked for them!  Over the years, Pueblo Zoo staff members had conducted gate surveys containing a wish list of animals; visitors to the zoo consistently selected otters as the animal they wanted to see at the zoo.  Based on those results, the Pueblo Zoo embarked on a journey to give the public what they wanted. 

Thelma - missing her left foreleg

The first otter to arrive at the zoo was purchased from a private individual.  Thelma was wild-caught at a very young age and was kept by a citizen who used her in educational programs. One day her owner found her in her enclosure, left foreleg badly mauled by a predator.  Unfortunately, the limb had to be amputated. Because she was hand-raised and with people most of the time, Thelma was more familiar with normal human activity than she was otter activity.  She was not familiar with water and not too keen on the idea of swimming, only briefly plunging her right foreleg into shallow water.  Eventually, she was coaxed in and has become an excellent swimmer.  In fact, Zookeeper Melanie Pococke states that Thelma “can’t stay dry for more than five minutes now”.

The Zoo also has two males: 13-year-old Odin, named for the Nordic god of wealth, wisdom and inspiration and 11-year-old Thor, named for the Nordic god of thunder. They were wild-caught in Louisiana and then taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Telluride, Colorado.  When this center, now closed, was searching for a new home for the two males, the Pueblo Zoo promptly responded and brought “the boys”, as Pococke calls them, to meet Thelma.  Animals were now in place for the long awaited otter exhibit.

Odin

Before breaking ground on the new exhibit in the early 2000s, all the capital was raised for the 1,400 square foot facility.  The funds came through a variety of sources including, but not limited to, Great Outdoors Colorado, the city and county of Pueblo and private donations.  Paul Bluestone, an architect who had done substantial work with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, designed the exhibit.  The enclosure has an 8-foot-deep pool and its land-water ratio is 60-40, which is pretty amenable to the otters, as they seem to happily enjoy their entire space.  In the summer, the otters have more fun and get to further cool off under a waterfall.  

In addition to the exhibit space, which is located just past the entrance to the zoo, the otters enjoy a substantial off-exhibit area.  Here, the otters have another section of open land that provides them a more rugged wild feel.  In the winter after a traditional Colorado snowstorm, the otters might enjoy spending as much time off-exhibit as on.  There is a steep hill that allows them to partake in their natural snow-sliding behavior. 

Over the years, the Zoo has attempted to breed Thelma with Odin or Thor, but the timing was off and pregnancy never occurred.  Because Thelma was aging past her prime breeding years and the Zoo remained interested in breeding North American River otters, Zoo curator Marilyn McBirney sought a younger female to introduce to the family of otters currently on site.  McBirney would find this youngster soon enough. 

Freyja

Freyja, who arrived in November 2011 as an eight-month-old female, is the newest member of the Pueblo Zoo’s river otter habitat.  She is named for the Nordic goddess of fertility and Zoo staff members remain hopeful she will live up to her name.  Without the act of a Good Samaritan in Florida, however, Freyja may never have made it to Pueblo.  She was a wild newborn pup, just weeks old having met a not-so-kind human who was carrying her by her tail.  Another individual, driving by, stopped suddenly after seeing the mistreatment and demanded the pup. Realizing Freyja needed more substantial care and that it was illegal to keep her, this kind-hearted person transported her to a place where she would receive proper care - The Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge (http://ecwildliferefuge.com). 

Freyja’s arrival at the refuge coincided with a request that Curator McBirney had submitted to the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) Otter SSP (Species Survival Plan), publicizing Pueblo Zoo’s desire for a young female otter if one became available. The fate of Freyja, the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge and Pueblo Zoo were to be forever entwined from this point.  Freyja was soon sent to join the three other otters at Pueblo Zoo. 

Generally, two female North American River otters do not co-habitate well and the Zoo staff was prepared for the idea that Thelma and Freyja may need to live separate lives.  Additionally, there were concerns about jealousy between “the boys” over breeding opportunities and with Freyja entering the close-knit relationship between Thelma, Thor and Odin.  The introduction of Freyja to Thelma, however, went more smoothly than the staff could have dreamed.  Thelma took to Freyja almost immediately, and according to Pococke, “within twenty minutes, everyone was together” acting as if they had been reintroduced to long lost family members. 

Happily Swimming Along

To the delight of visitors of all ages, the four otters actively swim by the windows and enjoy sprinting around the land portion of their enclosure.  Pococke manages the daily enrichment for the otters and it is an active task.  She prefers to use a wide range of methods and devices during the three-times-per-day enrichment schedule.  She will hide food within a wide variety of items, including scrubbing brushes, pinecones, balls, baby rattles, PVC tunnels, dive rings, towels and burlap sacks, hollow bones and even a duck decoy.  These items are also used during non-feeding times to add to the interest of the landscape of the enclosure.  Pococke is also directly responsible for the otter training, ensuring each animal is trained to allow obtaining their weight and to perform “hip-presents”, which refers to the process zookeepers use to ensure the animal will present its rear flank for a veterinary injection. 

Thelma and Freyja
awaiting "Go Fish"

In addition to the training necessary for medical exams, Pococke is training to develop and maintain the otters’ natural behavior.  One method she employs she likes to call “Go fish”, and her star pupils are the two females.  As the name would indicate, Pococke throws pieces of fish far out into the pool and tells the otters to “Go fish”.  They race across the enclosure diving into the water to seek their reward, then race back to Pococke knowing another reward awaits them for returning to the initial spot. 

Pococke has even found that she can combine feeding and enrichment through food choice.  A favorite of the otters is corn-on-the-cob.  Once they’ve finished clearing the kernels off the tubular snacks, the floating cob becomes a fun toy in the pool.  Another fun food/enrichment combination is bananas, which pushes the otters’ natural puzzle-solving skills to remove the peel before consuming the white flesh.  For the main portion of their diet, they are fed capelin, smelt, herring, squid and, at times, freshwater mussels, oysters and shrimp.

Freyja with Corn-on-the-Cob

In addition to the work the Pueblo Zoo is doing to conserve the North American River otter, it participates in the AZA’s Species Survival Plan for many other species.  According to the Zoo’s website, a few of their most successful breeding programs include the lesser slow loris, the swift fox, the maned wolf as well as African penguins.  In addition to the otters, Pococke manages the African penguin exhibit and the breeding program. She proudly notes that the Zoo has successfully raised 54 penguin chicks and, at 37-years-old, has the oldest female African penguin in captivity.

The Pueblo Zoo – with its river otters, eagles, penguins, red pandas, African lions, red kangaroos, swift foxes, bobcats and Canadian lynx to name just a few – is well worth a visit.  Pococke, who has been on staff for more than 20 years, considers the Zoo her home away from home.  She and all staff members have a “true devotion to the animals” and that, after all, is what is most important and makes it a special place to visit.

The Zoo is open year-round, closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  It closes at noon on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.  See below map for otter exhibit location (circled) in relation to entrance (starred).  For more information, visit www.pueblozoo.org. 

Otter News extends its sincere appreciation to The Pueblo Zoo, Zookeeper Melanie Pococke and Curator Marilyn McBirney for their assistance and behind the scenes tour of the North American River otter exhibit.