RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — The Long Island Aquarium announced the arrival of four new North American river otter pups on Wednesday, inviting visitors to come and see the adorable fur babies.
Among the new pups are two boys and two girls, born to mother Flo and father Stark on Feb. 6. Flo has been keeping her babies inside to bond and get enough nourishment, as they are born relatively helpless, senior curator Candyce Paparo told 1010 WINS.
“They’re born with their eyes closed, they’re pretty helpless when they’re young, just like kittens and puppies,” she said. “Mom does everything, they don’t really move around a whole lot for the first few weeks.”
But now that their eyes have opened, aquarium officials gave Flo access to the outdoor enclosure at the Riverhead facility called “Otter Falls.” As seen in videos posted to the aquarium social media, she almost immediately began bringing them outside on Wednesday to help get them moving.
“Within the next week or so they should start to ‘find their legs’ and start to test out walking around,” she said. “They’ll be kind of wobbly and not super strong, but within the next week or so we should start seeing them get up and move around a little bit more on their own.”
North American river otters are born after “delayed implementation,” meaning that the mother is impregnated about 320 to 330 days before birth, Paparo explained to 1010 WINS. Breeding and impregnation occur, but the egg doesn’t implant in the uterus right away. Once it does, the actual gestation is only about 68 to 73 days.
Because they didn’t have breeding last year, aquarium officials knew they might see pups this season. Now that they’re here, the four babies will stay with the Long Island Aquarium for about a year before going off on their own, as river otters do not congregate in big groups.
“The goal would be to move all of them to another facility,” Paparo said. “We do work with other aquarium and zoo facilities to help sustain the population of river otters in aquariums and zoos.”
Visit the Long Island Aquarium website to learn more.