Scooping Poop for Science

Last year we collected samples from three female otters to test for pregnancy.

 The samples were sent to CREW at the Cincinnati Zoo (Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife), and they determined that one of our females was pregnant.  On March 2, 2011, the female gave birth to triplets!

Zookeepers kept her away from the adult males so that she could raise her youngsters.  She will not being having babies this year, but our youngest female was in a group with a male otter.  Zookeepers collected samples every day from October to January of this year.  A few weeks ago, we learned that our female is not pregnant.  It would be nice to have otter pups again, but it is also nice to have a little break!  We now have 7 North American river otters at the Lowcountry Zoo - more than most American Zoos.

Our otter triplets continue to do very well, and they are almost as big as their mother.  I believe that she is at the bottom of that tackle pile.

In March, we will be celebrating the otters' first birthday!  Keep an eye out for the date of the celebration.  We will post it on the blog, on Brookgreen's website, Brookgreen's Facebook page, and maybe even in the newspaper.  It will be a fun day!!