International Giant Otter Studbook Husbandry and Management

Table 2 : Summary of the international historical reproductive
and rearing success of giant otters in zoos.
Institution
Survey
Period
No. Of Successful Litters*/
No. Of Litters
No. Of Cubs to live to 1 yr. ♠ /
No. Of Cubs Born
Tierpark Hagenbeck (1) 1976 – 1994 5 / 19 9 / 66**
Sao Paulo Zoo (2) 1970 – 1976 1 / 6 1 / 16
Brasilia Zoo (3) 1975 – 2002 6 / 24 **** 18 / 66
Cuiaba Zoo (4) 1992 – 1994 2 / 2 9 / 9
Parque del Este (5) ◦ 1968 – 1978 0 / 9 0 / 23
Cali Zoo (6) 1999 – 2002 2 / 5 5 / 12
Dortmund Zoo (7) 1995 – 2002 0 / 13 0 / 28
Chestnut Centre (8)*** 1997 0 / 1 0 / 3
Belem (9) ‡ 1998 – 2002 3 / 3 3 / 3
Total 1968 – 2002 19 / 82 45 / 226 •
Survey period includes only the years in which breeding was reported to occur at each institution * at least one
♠
cub in the litter survives one year or more A successfully reared cub is one that survived to one year of age or
older. ** four cubs handreared, only two survived *** aborted litter **** Louzada da Silva (pers. comm.)
suggested that 36 litters were suspected to be born from 1975 to 1997, although the additional litters were not seen
or detected so they were not officially registered in his revised census. ‡ Both Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi
(Belem, Brazil) and Criatorio Crocodilo Safari (Belem, Brazil), the private facility associated with Museu Goeldi,
are referred to under “Belem”. The breeding pair at Museu Goeldi was loaned to Criatorio Crocodilo Safari in
2001 where the pair had one litter (in 2002) while they were held at this institution. Because the same pair gave
birth to at least one or more successful litters at both of the two aforementioned institutions, these institutions are
associated and no other breeding pairs were known to be held at these institutions, these two institutions, except
where noted, are counted as one institution for all data within this manual and are referred to as “Belem”.
Inherited thyroid malfunctions due to severe inbreeding were likely to have prevented the survival of all of the cubs
born at Dortmund Zoo ◦ Parque del Este Zoo at Caracas was the first zoo in the world to report a giant otter
birth • Of 226 cubs, 217 cubs were born live
Source of Data : (1) Hagenbeck and Wünnemann 1992; Flügger 1997 (2) Autuori and Deutsch 1977; Sao
Paulo Zoo via Daniel Louzada da Silva, pers comm.; IZY (3) Daniel Louzada da Silva, Marcelo Lima
Reis, Adriana Sartori de Almeida Santos; pers. comm. : Dr. Wolf Bartmann, unpublished report; Brasilia
Zoo, pers. comm. (4) Daniel Louzada da Silva, pers comm.; Shirley Marcato de Oliveira 1995 (5)
Trebbau 1972 / 1978; IZY (6) German Corredor, pers comm. (7) Dr. Wolf Bartmann, pers comm.; Ilona
Schappert, pers. comm.; Volker Gatz, pers. comm. (8) Roger and Carol Heap, pers. comm. (9)
“Genealogical meeting ...” 1998; Brasilia Zoo, pers. comm. 2002.
In a 34 year period, between 1968 and 2002, nine institutions worldwide reported giant otter
births. A total of 82 litters were born and a total 217 cubs were born live and registered. Of these
217 cubs, only 45 are known to have survived to one year of age or older (20.7%). It is
important to note that a greater number of cubs could have been born. This suspicion is based on
the theory that not all litters have been detected.
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