A special meeting to discuss the zoos license is due to be held next week following Mr.Gill's conviction over the Ibis escapes.. North West Evening Mail | News | ?Exciting times? ahead for south Cumbria zoo despite closure threat
South Lakes 2015 #1 To start off the 2015 news thread - 0.0.4 Giant Otters were born today. Two have been pulled for handrearing and the other two left with there mother.. Statement from Facebook: Today we had 4 Giant Otter pups born, these amazing mammals are not commonly bred in captivity. Tupi and Carlos our pair have had 5 previous litters and sadly lost every pup so far, it is thought Tupi cannot produce much milk if any. After long discussions with our very experienced Veterinary team and senior animal management staff we decided to pull 2 of the pups immediately to hand rear them and to allow Tupi to try to rear the other two, a decision on them will be made tomorrow if she fails to feed them. Frieda our Veterinary Co ordinator at the SAFARI ZOO has taken on the new arrivals and is bottle feeding them every 2 hours and will have a sleepless night tonight and many more ! We cannot find any record of a successful hand rearing from birth of Giant Otters so live in hope
I was only aware of one previous unsuccessful litter being publicised . Good luck with the hand-rearing .
"Today we had 4 Giant Otter pups born, these amazing mammals are not commonly bred in captivity. Tupi and Carlos our pair have had 5 previous litters and sadly lost every pup so far, it is thought Tupi cannot produce much milk if any. After long discussions with our very experienced Veterinary team and senior animal management staff we decided to pull 2 of the pups immediately to hand rear them and to allow Tupi to try to rear the other two, a decision on them will be made tomorrow if she fails to feed them. Frieda our Veterinary Co ordinator at the SAFARI ZOO has taken on the new arrivals and is bottle feeding them every 2 hours and will have a sleepless night tonight and many more ! We cannot find any record of a successful hand rearing from birth of Giant Otters so live in hope" Utter bull-shine and fantasy, other zoos around the world an within the UK have done this, once again, more Bull from Dave Gill. Giant Otter Pups Swimming Lesson | Zoo News | Chester Zoo UK Zoo Miami Makes History with Giant Otter Pups - ZooBorns Los Angeles Zoo welcomes baby otters, giraffe for the holidays | 7online.com BBC News - Chester Zoo is England's top attraction outside London Potter Park Zoo's River Otter Pup Raised With Orphans as Sibling Trio - ZooBorns Hand-rearing and rehabilitation of orphaned wild giant otters, Pteronura brasiliensis, on the Rupununi river, Guyana, South America - McTurk - 2005 - Zoo Biology - Wiley Online Library Zoos-UK.com - Longleat Safari Park News Archive
I think you'll find that none of those 7 examples you gave match all the criteria of 'Hand rearing', 'From birth' and 'Giant otters' in South Lakes' statement. Therefore their claim still stands unless anyone can prove otherwise. Good luck to them! Would be very beneficial to all giant otters in captivity of they can get it right! EDIT: Oh and add into that list of criteria 'Successful' as well, just for good measure!
None of these links claim that they have raised giant otters from birth. Some links don't even concern giant otters. Those that do, all except one, say that the parents raised the pups. The one that talks about raising orphaned giant otters states the youngest they started with was 2 weeks old, not from birth.
It is known that giant otter cubs have been hand reared successful from birth, South Lakes is not the first. Laurie j. Gage DVM is one person who has done so and written on how to care along with nutritional methods. Otter Joy - Giant Otters in Captivity IUCN OSG - OZ: Otters in Zoos, Aquaria, Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Sanctuaries http://www.giantotterresearch.com/articles/A_Chorus_of_Otters.pdf Carnivora - The Bartlett Society http://www.otterspecialistgroup.org...ican_River_Otter_Rehabilitation_Section_1.pdf
do you actually read any of the information on the links you provide, or just hope that nobody else will open them?
Well I for one applaud that they are having a go at hand rearing just 2,and to give the mother a fair crack at the whip to try and naturally feed the other 2. It will a big drain on resources too if they have to lose a keeper from their staff,for a considerable length of time, just to try and raise the 2 pups. They live in one of their better enclosures,with quite a lot of swimming room. Admittedly when I was there one of the otters was scaling a fir tree as a vantage point,not very tropical rain forest,but heyho. Lets give praise where its due folks. (I would love to see these at YWP to compliment their South American Viva exhibit but I fear the area it would fit perfect in has been ear-marked for another picnic area. )
Just a shame there is precious little land within the enclosure; quite possibly one reason the otter was climbing! As would I.
I believe that the 'keeper' in charge of raising these otter pups in in fact Gill's new wife who started working at the park as a Veterinary Coordinator when they were engaged. I do not believe she works at the park full time (I've seen her wandering about the park with a big camera supervising children) but more she is working at the park when she isn't with Gill at his USA ranch....
"Giant Otter pups update: We now have all four of the pups in the owners house and hand rearing by his wife our Vet Frieda. . This morning 24 hours after birth mother Otter Tupi still had not managed to feed the little ones we left in and they were close to death. We immediately pulled them out and they are quiet compared to the first two but doing well." posted South Lakes
Yes the enclosure is pretty good,just a pity about the indoor housing for them,as its the worst indoor housing I have seen for Giant Otters any where and I have seen all the ones in the UK and a good number in Europe!Will just say its the only one that I have seen that is tiled,with nothing down on the tiles atleast it was the 3 times,I saw it before they boarded the windows up because they kept losing the cubs!
From Gills own page: "Indi came home from school today and was so excited that he and Dad were now in charge...with mother otter (Frieda FX Rivera Schreiber) flying off to warm sandy beaches. i could not believe how attached she had got to them. So we have to get up every 3 hours now...but all is going well with these amazingly rare and endangered animals and we are recording every detail for a scientific paper on the subject as this has never been recorded before as far as we are aware." (Two pictures one with Gill and the other with Indi bottle feeding the cubs are shown)
