International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management
International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management
International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management
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used alone below, it also implies "abnormal h<strong>and</strong>ling".) Moderate disturbances caused an<br />
abnormally increased amount of nervousness, abuse, <strong>and</strong> h<strong>and</strong>ling (compared to the reactions of<br />
other giant otters). As well, when the old mother required oral medication for possible infection<br />
from an aborted decomposed fetus, the primary giant otter keeper quickly <strong>and</strong> quietly entered<br />
the indoor building to access the feed den. The keeper then h<strong>and</strong>ed each parent one fish <strong>and</strong><br />
immediately left the area in the same way he entered. Extreme cub abuse <strong>and</strong> excessive<br />
h<strong>and</strong>ling <strong>and</strong> nervousness resulted nearly immediately after, <strong>and</strong> because of, the disturbance.<br />
(Note: antibiotics were necessary <strong>and</strong> they had to be offered hidden in a fish. Each otter had to<br />
be h<strong>and</strong>ed a fish to ensure that the correct otter received the medication. The medication<br />
continued for 5 days <strong>and</strong> it was administered one time per day.)<br />
Disturbance caused the parents to become very abnormal in their behavior. Observed, with<br />
predictable consistency <strong>and</strong> obvious correlation, were both parents abusing their cubs,<br />
abnormally h<strong>and</strong>ling them, <strong>and</strong>/or becoming abnormally nervous as a direct result of even minor<br />
human disturbances. Both the mother <strong>and</strong> father abused their cubs with equal severity <strong>and</strong><br />
frequency. They also would not lie still long enough so that the cubs could nurse or in rare<br />
cases the mother would leave the cubs unattended for an abnormal length of time. During the<br />
aforementioned times, the cubs had little or no chance to nurse. All of these factors had<br />
negative consequences on the cubs’ well-being. When the parents could control familiar events<br />
themselves (i.e. they could control their own activities) it was not a disturbance, but events over<br />
which they had no control (i.e. human disturbances) caused disturbance <strong>and</strong> consequential<br />
nervousness <strong>and</strong> cub abuse/neglect.<br />
The greater the disturbance, the longer <strong>and</strong>/or more severe the abnormal behaviors (i.e.<br />
abnormal abuse, h<strong>and</strong>ling, <strong>and</strong> nervousness) became. These behaviors occurred from<br />
immediately to 34 minutes (averaging 9 minutes) after the disturbance occurred <strong>and</strong> they<br />
continued either intermittently or continually during a time period of 2 minutes to 71 minutes<br />
(averaging 24 minutes) in length. These behaviors ranged from mild to highly<br />
excessive/extreme <strong>and</strong> they occurred 3-6 times/day (averaging 4 times/day) over a 7-day period<br />
(until the cubs died or were pulled for h<strong>and</strong>rearing). A large percentage of these periods<br />
accounted for, occurred in direct correlation with <strong>and</strong> as a result of the disturbances created<br />
when the primary keeper fed <strong>and</strong> medicated the otters. (The otters were fed 3 to 4 times per<br />
day.) Some of the behaviors that the parents themselves regularly carried out before parturition,<br />
seemed to disturb them after parturition. It seemed that these formerly familiar behaviors<br />
became “novel” to them after parturition. Mild, to at worst even moderate, abnormal behaviors<br />
resulted when these seemingly “novel” behaviors were performed after parturition. After the<br />
parents repeated <strong>and</strong> exp<strong>and</strong>ed these behaviors, they became comfortable/familiar with them,<br />
they no longer disturbed themselves, <strong>and</strong> the cubs were treated well. For example, when the<br />
mother first left the nestbox after parturition (just after a minor human disturbance occurred<br />
about 4 hours after parturition), this caused a significant disturbance <strong>and</strong> resulted in abuse.<br />
Future excursions (without concurrent human disturbances), such as movement/exploration to<br />
exhibit areas increasingly more remote from the nestbox containing the cubs, also disturbed the<br />
otters <strong>and</strong> resulted in abuse. The parents although, over time, eventually played, dug, groomed,<br />
<strong>and</strong> exercised <strong>and</strong> they did not become disturbed or abuse the cubs as a result after these<br />
outings. On these outings, the parents could carry out the full extent of their grooming, digging,<br />
playing <strong>and</strong> exercising activities on l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> this helped them to relax, reduce their stress, <strong>and</strong><br />
entertain them.<br />
It is important to note the following points. These parents did not abuse their cubs <strong>and</strong> treated<br />
them normally when disturbances did not occur. Both the mother <strong>and</strong> the father were quite<br />
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