International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management

housed. It also may be that the longer that otters are exposed to hard surfaces (and certainly the
greater the amount of/enclosure area with hard surfaces), the longer it may take the otters’ feet
to recover to a significantly healthier state.
The one otter observed with feet that were/are totally brown, at Dortmund Zoo, had been housed
at Brasilia Zoo for most of her life. Nine months before the observation by Groenendijk
occurred, she was housed at Brasilia Zoo in the conditions aforementioned and she was at this
zoo since her birth, 3 years ago. When this otter was separated from her large family group, for
physical examination and holding, just over a week or so before her transfer to Dortmund, she
was held in a small temporary holding enclosure surfaced only with concrete and a very small
wading area. This enclosure was sheltered from the rain, as it had a roof and 3 concrete walls
and the concrete was not rough or abrasive in texture. One containment barrier was made of
metal lattice and the separated animals had visual-olfactory-acoustic contact during separation.
(Staff were unable to re-introduce her with her family because of fighting upon re-introduction
attempts. The otters held at Brasilia normally do not have access to this small holding
enclosure.) The fact that she was exposed to all hard surfaces as well as tried to dig into the
concrete land area and fence with an extraordinarily high degree of frequency, duration, and
intensity, made her foot condition very unhealthy. (See the comments above about digging on
land/floor surfaces and containment barriers during separation and stress.) Her foot and toe
pads and webbing became very irritated, dark pink to red in color (with a brown under tone),
cut, cracked, raw, and red sores developed, because of exposure to hard surfaces during this
short period.
After the aforementioned otter’s transport to Dortmund, she was housed in a temporary holding
enclosure for almost one year. In this enclosure, within about 2 months, her webbing and pads
returned to the color and healthy natural appearance/condition that her other family members
were observed to have at Brasilia Zoo. The aforementioned temporary holding enclosure is
90m 2 total and it had an appropriate land to water ratio. The indoor housing area (45% of the
total enclosure area) consists of land nearly totally (except for of the very small area in front of
the keeper doors and the very small area just in front of the swim basins) covered by deep
mulch. (The mulch used is the recommended type and was deep enough to allow deep digging.)
The outdoor area (55% of the total enclosure area) is totally covered by deep soft sand for
digging. (Additional plentiful natural furnishings (logs, "man-made bamboo stands", etc. and
play toys were also offered.) It is important to note that only soft substrates were used to help
this animal’s feet to return to a healthy condition and no medical treatment was used.
Fur Coat Condition, Grooming, Infections and Related Health Problems
Observations of wild giant otter grooming and marking behavior in Suriname:
In the wild, “The otters divide their time almost equally between hunting (feeding)
and resting ashore…Pteronura spends a large portion of its time ashore engaged
in grooming activities…[In the wild this activity includes grooming themselves
and each other, as well as the following activity described.]…The otters dry
themselves immediately after leaving the water by rubbing and rolling against the
substrate…. Rubbing apparently functions to dry the guard hairs and press the
water from the underfur. Rubbing is energetic and thorough, the otter first
rubbing its neck and thorax by pressing them against the ground and rubbing the
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