International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management

At Dortmund Zoo, the father usually takes the cubs to the water when they are around 2 weeks
old and the mother usually brings them back to the den (Gatz & Sykes Gatz pers. obs.). The
swimming lessons can appear very rough, especially when the parents push the cubs under the
water with their feet and let them come back up to the surface again on their own. The parents
carry a cub by holding the cub’s neck in their mouth. The cub’s body is left hanging down
when it is being carried.
First Swim Alone:
The cubs were able to swim at one month old and the cubs’ were seen swimming alone at 63
days old at Sao Paulo Zoo while the mother stayed on dry land (Autuori & Deutsch 1977).
At Hagenbecks Tierpark, “At 67 days of age they left the nestbox and were seen entering the
water for the first time [i.e. cubs entering the water on their own for the first time].” (Hagenbeck
& Wünnemann 1992).
First Eat Fish and Weaning Ages:
At Hagenbecks Tierpark (Germany) giant otter cubs, at approximately 8 weeks old, mouthed
and played with fish that the mother brought to them; although they only first started
swallowing solid fish at 70 days of age (10 weeks old) (Hagenbeck and Wünnemann 1992).
Later reports explain that two cubs, that were captive-born and handreared at Hagenbecks,
ingested solid food at 3 months old, although it was found that they could not digest the fish
properly when they were this age. “The feces contained a lot of undigested fat and protein and
the enzyme level of chymotrypsin was much lower than in adult animals” (Wünnemann 1995 b ).
Wünnemann 1995 further reports, “At 70 days, the [giant otter] cubs will start to swallow solid
food, although they start playing with it a long time before this time. However, they are
dependent on their mother for at least four months [i.e. the first 4 months of the cubs’ life] and
will continue suckling up to the age of seven months”. The cubs continued nursing mother’s
milk when they were around 6 1/2 months old, although only insignificant amounts were
obtained and it provided little nutritional value.
At Sao Paulo Zoo, the mother offered the cubs a live fish at 74 days old. The cubs played with
the fish, but did not try to bite them. Later, the mother left a fish by the water’s edge, and the 90
day old cub ate its first small bites of fish. At 107 days old a cub caught a fish on its own and
ate it (Autuori & Deutsch 1977).
Interesting Side Note: At Dortmund Zoo the mother brought a fish to her 6 day old cub, placed it
in front of the blind cub, and then she placed the fish on top of the cub’s back. After 2 minutes
the mother removed the fish from the cub’s back and ate it (Sykes-Gatz, pers. obs.).
See in Chapter 1 Section 5 and Chapter 5 the dates for weaning handreared cubs and the
scientific study that needs to be conducted on ages to wean cubs during handrearing.
Reports of Physical Development in Captivity:
See the giant otter cub weight growth curve under Graph 2. See a complete listing of all
reported individual cub weights and lengths in Table 6 and individual adult weights and lengths
in Table 7. Also see the discussion in Chapter 1 Sections 4-5 and Chapter 5 about cub body
weight and length measurements and corresponding age data that are needed for study.
Following are some additional details about some of the individuals reported in Tables 6 and 7
and additional information.
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