Hairy-nosed otter, May 2013.

Photo taken on the 19th May 2013.

Very nice!!!! One of the two otter species I've never seen! (Southern river otter is the other)

A lucky sighting as he's very strictly off-show. I've mentioned him to you before but for the benefit of others: this is Pursat, the only hairy-nosed otter in captivity.

This is s day for treats! Interesting to see this animal soon after seeing the shot Giant Eland took of Neotropical River Otter; the skull shapes do look quite distinctive between the genera.

So how did you see this amazing species if its strictly off-show? Is the rest of the centre open to the public?

The rest of the site is a zoo & rescue centre. The place is enormous, and there's a lot of land which can't be visited by the public. Even in the zoo area there are large tracts of forest, or avenues of enclosures of animals which are displayed elsewhere.

They had another hairy-nosed otter previously (named Dara) which had come from Angkor zoo, I think. Although they've made great progress in the husbandry of this species, he died a few years ago. It's thought that the stress incurred by being exposed to a large number of people may have been a small factor in his decline, but it's something they'd like to remove as much as possible with this one (Pursat). And so only a few people are allowed contact with him.

How I got to see him was a series of lucky events. I had donated a fair bit of money to Wildlife Alliance previously. I don't normally ask to see specific animals behind-the-scenes without invitation on the day of my visit, but this was such a unique situation that I had to try. So I tried with some determination. A member of staff who had been asking me questions about the animals and was very impressed eventually started to make some phone calls to get me permission. It took a while but he managed to secure me a private audience with Pursat while he was being fed. A beautiful and very active animal.