International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management

high). It has an openable top, entrance shift door, and floor drainage holes. The entrance hole is
located on the box sidewall measuring 122 cm (4 ft) long. A plywood wall (tunnel wall), at the
entrance hole’s inner side, extends from the nestbox’s ceiling to floor and continues part way
(48 cm [19"]) to the box’s back wall. Ample room is left so adult otters can easily walk around
the corner created.
Detachable tunnels/tunnel sections that access/connect to the nestbox or carry away
nestboxes, designed to securely lock an otter within, are optimal for easier, safer, and less
stressful otter relocations. When these are used as transport crates, they should only be
used when the otter is transported over a short distance e.g. within the same zoo to
another enclosure. These should not be used for longer transports. Even during short
moves, tunnels or nestboxes that are made of solid materials (i.e. wood) and that are used for a
temporary transport crate, must allow adequate ventilation during the move. For example,
the shift doors on tunnels and nestboxes should be made of strong metal lattice to allow
ventilation. A temporary transport crate can also be created from a removable section of tunnel
that accesses two separate enclosures etc. For example, a 40 cm wide x 40 cm high (16" wide x
16" high) metal lattice tunnel that accesses two areas can be sectioned with a guillotine metal
sliding shift door at each end, to create a 130 cm (4.27 ft) long area. This section should be
designed so it can be easily detached from the entire tunnel to form a temporary transport crate.
The shift door frame should be elevated, e.g. 10 cm (4”), above the tunnel floor to help prevent
that substrates block the shift door track. The tunnel floor should be covered with mulch or
sand for daily use (see Section 2 above for substrate qualities, depths etc.). If the floor of the
tunnel is made with metal materials (e.g. metal lattice, solid metal) this is esp. crucial during
the winter if the animals have wet paws when they are traveling through the tunnel. (Wooden
boards can be placed/fixed along the outside bottom edge of the tunnel to help prevent
substrates from being pushed out of the tunnel.)
It is highly recommended to place an infrared video camera with a microphone in each
dark nestbox (and den and enclosure area as well). In this way cub development, health, and
behavior and parental care can be monitored without human disturbance to the otters. See
Section 10B. Video cameras (with microphones) should be placed on the top of each
nestbox with a protective covering surrounding the video cameras and wires leading to it.
(Giant otters often like to climb onto the top of their nestboxes and temporarily lie there.) E.g. a
wooden box housing can be placed around the camera and video wires can be run through
metal/plastic PVC tubes/pipes. Waterproof camera housing protection is also very helpful. The
camera lens can be placed through a hole made into the nestbox top. The outside edge of a
camera lens within the nestbox can be surrounded by a piece of fence that extends below the
bottom of the camera lens to prevent that otters will dig into or play with the lens (e.g. footprints
could obstruct the view etc.).
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