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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these births may go undetected. Ultrasounds are very helpful to help determine if mother’s are<br />
actually pregnant, to check health <strong>and</strong> uterine condition, rule out false pregnancies, <strong>and</strong> to help<br />
make preparation to provide isolation to the parents when needed etc. (See Chapter 1 Section<br />
4).<br />
Because of Katja’s reproductive problems (see under Dortmund Zoo in Chapter 1 Section 4), we<br />
were increasingly worried about her health. It became highly important for us to monitor her<br />
further pregnancies (i.e. to determine <strong>and</strong>/or study pregnancy <strong>and</strong> uterine condition before birth<br />
<strong>and</strong> after litter loss) with the help of frequent ultrasound examinations.<br />
The only practical way to accomplish this was through husb<strong>and</strong>ry training. Another important<br />
goal of the training is the collection of a milk (i.e. lactation) sample. The specific composition<br />
of giant otter milk (i.e. percentages / types of fat, protein, lactose, etc.) is either unknown or<br />
unreported. It has to be pointed out that samples must be gathered after litter loss only to<br />
prevent human disturbances to parents. Unfortunately, the only sample drawn at Dortmund Zoo<br />
was lost due to technical reasons. Additional captive females, world-wide, should be trained to<br />
allow milk samples to be drawn after litter loss.<br />
<strong>Giant</strong> otters are very intelligent, playful <strong>and</strong> curious animals, which like other otters, like to<br />
investigate everything very thoroughly. Nevertheless, training can be quite difficult. <strong>Giant</strong><br />
otters have a low attention span for focusing on objects for any extended period of time. The<br />
training situation must be as fun <strong>and</strong> stimulating as possible to keep the otters attention. At<br />
Dortmund, we have found that it is often difficult to station a giant otter for much longer than<br />
15 to 30 seconds, but occasionally 45 seconds <strong>and</strong> times up to 1½ minutes have been<br />
accomplished. Although, with a different training technique, that only has been used on one<br />
giant otter that is kept singly at Dortmund, we are able to perform husb<strong>and</strong>ry procedures for up<br />
to a half-hour or more (see below).<br />
This species is potentially very dangerous <strong>and</strong> serious injuries, even causing death in some<br />
cases, have been reported when people entered giant otter exhibits. Therefore, all training has<br />
to be done through a protective fence or lattice. It is very important for the trainer to pay a lot<br />
of attention to the animals as well as to the interaction of the animals with each other. It seems<br />
that especially the females are often jealous regarding a trainer’s attention towards her mate <strong>and</strong><br />
also regarding food rewards, resulting in fights during the training. These fights usually only<br />
last a couple seconds but the resulting stress <strong>and</strong> tension make the extended stationing which is<br />
needed for ultrasound examinations nearly impossible. Fights can be mostly avoided if both<br />
animals are only rewarded with small pieces of food <strong>and</strong> if the distance between them during<br />
training is big enough. In addition, variations in the training program can help to prevent<br />
aggressive behavior.<br />
Katja was four <strong>and</strong> Kuddel was six years old when we first started training them. Both had no<br />
experience with being trained before. Initial training included mainly target follows, including<br />
climbing up in the exhibit lattice, shape <strong>and</strong> color discrimination as well as scale training. Katja<br />
was also conditioned to accept different types of body examinations by the trainer’s h<strong>and</strong>, while<br />
she was climbed up in the lattice. Clearly, a key to training success is the use of small but<br />
frequent reinforcers. Mackerel is our giant otters’ favorite food. It is not part of their normal<br />
diet because of the high fat content but it is very valuable in small amounts as a training reward.<br />
Initially, a whistle was used as bridge while we currently use the verbal bridge “good” instead.<br />
The otters can target, with either their paws or nose, or both. It is the otters’ natural tendency to<br />
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