Otter News Archive

Otter Watch: Zoo officials think babies could arrive soon

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2nd April , 2008

Bob Holliday

The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, USA

BLOOMINGTON -- Chloe peeked out from a large log, but not even a fish could coax Miller Park Zoo’s female North American river otter into the open.

“I think she’s pregnant,” said Miller Park Zoo Superintendent John Tobias, explaining the otter’s shyness and heft.

If so, Chloe would be the first river otter to give birth at the zoo during Tobias’ 16-year tenure. Tobias guesses there could be a baby otter or more within the next 10 days.

In preparation for the big day, keepers have boarded up part of the den to give the otter more privacy. Everything else remains the same, including the diet of fish.

On an afternoon earlier this week, the male otter, Ozzie, got most of the fish as he scampered about the exhibit to get what keeper Wendy Klessig threw.

The soon-to-be father is “three years old and real fast,” Klessig said, adding Chloe, trapped in the wild in Ohio as a nuisance, is closer to age 9 or 10 and not so fast.

Ozzie, who was at the zoo first, was born in captivity, zoo officials said.

Klessig believes Chloe is pregnant, but only time will tell since as a physical examination isn’t practical.

“She is moving real slow and is wider on the back end,” Klessig said. If born, the pup or pups would remain for a while at the zoo and then be moved to another zoo to avoid a male pup fighting with Ozzie or a female pup breeding with him.

“We’re excited about it. There’s not a lot of babies born here,” Klessig said.

Last year, the public got excited about the possible birth of a bald eagle at the zoo, but that didn’t pan out when one egg of Beauty’s disappeared and the other was infertile.

Eric and Cory McTaggart of Ottawa were among zoo visitors watching a recent otter feeding.

McTaggart looked for Chloe, but she was out of his sight. He saw, instead, Ozzie dashing about snatching up fish.

The prospect of a baby otter excited McTaggart.

“That would be good,” he said as he held his 2-year-old daughter, Molly, and promised to return when a baby otter arrives.