Keepers at Chester Zoo have announced that the zoo’s giant otter pup triplets are now learning to swim.
Until lately, the pups have been hidden in their den following their birth in February. Now their first-time parents Manu and Bonita have brought them outside for their first encounter with water.
At 15 weeks, the triplets were deemed ready by mum and dad to get a swimming lesson. One at a time, the pups were each carried by the scruff and introduced to the water with a sudden splash, and keepers caught the action on camera.
All the mammals at Chester are given unique names and the zoo revealed these alongside the update. The two boys have been called “Yali” and “Uca” after Perus’s second largest region (and part of the Amazon rainforest) called Ucayali. Their sister has been named Yara, a word that means “river spirit” in the folklore of Brazil.
Carnivore team keeper for Chester, Frazer Walsh, commented on the recent activities in the giant otter enclosure. He said that although the species look like they’d take to water easily with their rudder-like tail, webbed feet and waterproof fur, they still needed to learn to swim when young.
After being dropped in the deep end, the triplets have already found their confidence and are swimming independently.
As the world’s largest otter species, giant otters are apex predators on the Amazon River but face decline due to illegal hunting, water pollution and deforestation. The pups’ birth was part of an important conservation breeding programme running in zoos across Europe to help safeguard the species from extinction.