International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management

in a breeding pair to determine, as early during gestation as possible, if she is pregnant.
I.e. dates when mating occurred should be recorded, teats and abdomen should be checked for
increase in size, ultrasound training can be performed etc. This is necessary so that if
family/group members (i.e. 6 month old cubs) need to be removed from the breeding pair,
separation can be done in the early stages of pregnancy. For example, Flügger (1997)
reports, when staff removed a 6 month old juvenile from parents who were rearing their
successive litter, this action disturbed and stressed the parents so severely, that it resulted in the
loss of the newest litter two days after the 6 month old was removed. The cubs (5 in total) in
this litter died at 4 days old.
It is not recommended to separate parents during pregnancy or cub-rearing (Louzada da
Silva, pers. comm. 1998; “Genealogical Meeting…” 1998; Flügger, pers. comm. 2001; Sykes-
Gatz 2001; Gatz pers. comm. 2003). As stated earlier, in captivity, both parents are responsible
for taking care of the cubs and it is very unnatural for parents to be separated during cub-rearing
or at any other time. Separation will cause great stress to the parents and this can cause the
significant chance that litter loss will occur. That is because when captive giant otter mothers
are stressed (as well as fathers) they can eat, neglect, or abuse their litters. Note: litter loss will
most likely occur if parents are separated after parturition, but even if they are separated before
parturition there is a significant chance that litter loss will occur. It may be possible that
mothers could abort their pregnancy because of stress caused by separation. Only the following
zoos have reported to separate parents (these zoos separated the parents before
parturition). A significant number (i.e. 57%) of the litters from these parents died in the
sole care of the mother during rearing. I.e. 4 of the 7 litters born where parents were
separated, died within the first two days after parturition in the mother’s care. Hagenbeck
Tierpark, Sao Paulo Zoo, and Dortmund Zoo were the only three institutions that reported such
occurrences. Following are their experiences.
Hagenbeck Tierpark (Hagenbeck & Wünnemann 1992) reports that parents were separated two
weeks prior to parturition and the male was moved to quarantine. This “recently formed pair”
(i.e. the parents) was separated because they “did not live together in complete harmony”. The
pair was separated for two litters. From these litters, one cub was successfully reared by the
mother in a litter of 4 live born cubs and 2 cubs were reared successfully in a litter of 3 live born
cubs. Flügger (1997) and Wünnemann (1995) at Hagenbeck considered it wise and natural
to keep the parents together during cub-rearing; therefore throughout the following 7 litters
(after which the female died), the pair was not separated. Three of the seven litters born were
successful and four were unsuccessful, although 2 of the 4 unsuccessful litter deaths (see above
and below), occurred because of severe disturbances (i.e. caused by older offspring or the
removal of older offspring during rearing) (Flügger 1997). The male “proved to be a good
father”.
The parents at Sao Paulo were separated 30 days after mating and the female was moved to
another enclosure (Autuori & Deutsch 1977). Three litters were born when the otters were
separated. The first two litters died or were eaten by the mother, both within 2 days after their
birth. One cub in the last litter was successfully reared by the mother; although no births were
reported after this.
At Dortmund, parents were separated approx. over one month before parturition and the male
was moved to an enclosure that was located far away from the female, although at this time and
after litter birth the female was being visually introduced to an unfamiliar male (Sykes-Gatz pers.
obs. 2000). The father was also separated from the mother a few days before parturition and he
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