Chestnut Centre Conservation & Wildlife Park Giant Otter Cubs

zoogiraffe said:
Hi Pertinax I photographed the pair together at the Chestnut centre on the 31/05/2009,I was told that they had been introduced 5 days before my visit.
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Thanks for the information Zoogiraffe.

So I wonder if Chester's will breed within a similar time frame. They certainly look very compatable from the 'sleeping' photos.
 
Pertinax said:
Thanks for the information Zoogiraffe.

So I wonder if Chester's will breed within a similar time frame. They certainly look very compatable from the 'sleeping' photos.
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Fingers crossed for Chester to breed this species soon. When I visited at the end of May, the two seemed to be getting along just fine. Where one went the other followed and they never seperated. Some photos I've seen on here seem to reflect this :) They make a lovely couple.
 
Javan Rhino said:
Fingers crossed for Chester to breed this species soon. When I visited at the end of May, the two seemed to be getting along just fine. Where one went the other followed and they never seperated. Some photos I've seen on here seem to reflect this :) They make a lovely couple.
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I think they're a bit young at the moment ;)
 
haz_cat said:
I think they're a bit young at the moment ;)
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Don't know how old they are ;p. Is the male 2? Otters are not my strongest area so don't know so much about sexual maturity/life expectancy etc.
So long as they stay so close to one another we may get some cubs when they're old enough :)
 
chesterfan said:
Does anyone know why the mortality rate is so high?
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You can find most of this information in the International Giant Otter Studbook husbandry guidelines (can be found in the library at giantotterresearch.com). In a nutshell, it is human disturbances during cub rearing (which they are very sensitive to) and wrong keeping conditions like wrong enclosure substrates and pools too close to nestboxes (wet nestboxes cause severe problems).
 
Thanks for the link Saro it is very informative. I can't find a more recent studbook than 2005 (data up to December 2003); is there a link for a newer edition?
 
I also believe that a lot of young giant otters died in Dortmund during the 90's because of inbreeding problems (which caused a genetic desease) as their pair back then was brother / sister. These deaths are probably also included in the statistics, which doesn't help. The latest young animals all seem to be doing quite well (Doué lost the runt of the litter i think, but Hamburg, Duisburg, Dortmund and NA all seem to be keeping them alive quite well, bare for San Francisco's first litter).

I haven't found a more recent studbook, which by now is a lot larger (thankfully).
 
The EAZA web-site www.eaza.net has the 2008/09 Year-book on-line including an up-date on the European population of Giant Otters for that period .
 
jwer said:
I also believe that a lot of young giant otters died in Dortmund during the 90's because of inbreeding problems (which caused a genetic desease) as their pair back then was brother / sister. These deaths are probably also included in the statistics, which doesn't help..
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You are right, but compared to the overall number of cubs, the ones that died because of inbreeding related illness at Dortmund is really low. Very often, cubs get killed by their parents or older siblings due to stress. Enteritis and pneumonia are also very common. Hamburg had 13 cubs last year, of which only two survived. The death rate at Philadelphia is also pretty high. Nevertheless, keeping conditions in many zoos are much better then in the past and at least in Europe, the situation is improving. (That is not the case in most of South America where currently not a single zoo is breeding.) Enclosures with the right conditions like at Chestnut or Doue LaFontaine set examples for other zoos.
 
Any updates? I'm hoping to visit this weekend and wondered how the cubs are doing.
 
I went today, the giant otters are still not on show but we did see a cub on the cctv screen.

Apparently the parents have taken them down to swim in the big pool for the first time within the last few days.
 
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Thanks for letting us know :-)
Do you know what happened to the third cub then, as there were still 3 when I last went??
 
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