Saw this early in first my of three days at the San Diego Zoo. Unfortunately, this would be the only time over the three days I could find the otter in its massive habitat. Taken October 2nd, 2018.
@ThylacineAlive to be honest I do not recall. I was not overly enthralled with the Children's Zoo and didn't spend much time there compared to the other sections of the zoo.
@Zoological Point It was empty. There were still signs saying "spotted-neck otter," but no otters to be found, so I'm guessing the animals were moved out relatively recently.
@Hipporex Did you go into the underwater viewing area because the animal has a den down there.
@m30t Yeah it's one of the not nicer areas of the zoo (though the worst goes to the bear grottos/primate cages) but they're redoing it soon. I hope they keep that building with confiscated herps and arachnids.
@ThylacineAlive agreed on all fronts. The section with the grottos I found quite depressing, and I really hope there's something in the works to redo it. Personally, I would prefer not having those animals on exhibit than using the current exhibits.
@m30t That and the whole Urban Jungle area are some of the biggest reasons why San Diego isn't in my 'top 5 zoos I've been to' list and barely hits #2*
*Bearing in mind I haven't seen a lot of other major US zoos like Columbus, Miami, and Omaha which I may very well like more.
@ThylacineAlive I didn't dislike Urban Jungle as much as the bear grottoes/primate cages. I wasn't a fan of Urban Jungle but I felt like it's a section that is viewed especially negative relative to the rest of the zoo, whereas the grottoes I would view negatively in any zoo.
Omaha is a particularly interesting comparison. I visited that zoo again on the way to San Diego, and was quite pleased to see the former bear habitats vacant.
