International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management

offered. I.e. it is only necessary to correct the conditions that are responsible for causing their
abnormalities and unhealthiness and no other techniques are needed.
The otters that do not recover to 100% health and normality, because they do not carry out
all of their essential terrestrial behaviors to the full extent they innately could, are
unfortunately sometimes misinterpreted as being a totally healthy otter. This behavior
should although not be considered normal, but rather an animal that is displaying a very
significant improvement in mental and behavioral health. Because a very significant, rather than
full recovery, may occur this should not be considered as a reason to not provide the necessary
furnishings and designs.
The period of “adjustment”, i.e. how long it takes the otters to activate their innate terrestrial
behaviors, seems to vary upon how much exposure to appropriate conditions the otters
previously had and if they were paired with another otter who exhibited “healthy” behaviors. An
otter with more exposure to suitable circumstances in the past or an otter that is paired with
another animal who is completely behaviorally healthy seems to have shorter periods of
adjustment than an otter without these benefits. It seems that the longer that a deprived otter has
lived in suitable enclosures in its past, especially during its development, the more frequently
and intensely and the longer, it may carry out terrestrial activities, once it is again reintroduced to
a sufficient living area.
Additionally, giant otters who have been offered the recommended enclosure conditions
alone, have been able to make a very significant or full recovery from even the most severe
unhealthy behaviors (see those listed above under negative behaviors occurring in typical daily
circumstances i.e. stereotypical behaviors, very dulled/lack of alertness, attentiveness, and
curiosity etc.). As well, those recovered animals, who encountered new/unusual situations
after their rehabilitation, had the ability to successfully adjust to these situations without
abnormally elevated or excessive levels of negative responses as they had shown before.
They exhibited the behaviors that a behaviorally healthy otter would display during such a
situation when housed in appropriate conditions. Such furnishings and designs as
aforementioned are necessary to promote successful cub-rearing and help otters successfully
adjust to new/unusual situations. (These affected animals who recovered had insufficient land,
digging, and grooming areas for the majority of their lives. They were kept in enclosures where
the land to water ratios offered significantly smaller land proportions than recommended or/and
the entire land area or the majority of it was hard (i.e. concrete, tile, etc.). No or very little soft
substrates were offered. This most obviously was the reason for their unhealthy state, as only the
exposure to these conditions corrected, resolved their problems. Either the animals were moved
to a totally new enclosure or conditions were changed within the enclosure they had been living
in.
Although the known number of giant otters that recovered as aforementioned were limited, the
results obviously indicate that the chance that other individuals can make similar recoveries, if
given such an opportunity, is very significant and therefore reasonable conclusions can be
drawn. (Four individuals recovered in this matter. At least one other giant otter was known to
have been offered appropriate enclosure conditions after living in inappropriate conditions,
although no reports are known on this otter's recovery. Additionally, the enclosure conditions of
two other otters have been improved, but only partially, and reports and observations of these
otters show that their behavioral health improved in correlation with the amount of enclosure
condition improvements. These otters although did not recover to the extent of the otters who
were offered completely appropriate conditions. At least two additional giant otters were
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