Watch this otter pup learn to swim at the Oregon Zoo
An otter mother teaches her pup to swim at the Oregon Zoo.
— -- Tucker, an otter pup at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, decided to take his first big swim — with help from his mom, Tilly.
Tucker and his sister Nellie (short for Nestucca and Nehalem, which are rivers in Oregon) were born at the zoo in late February.
“Many people don’t realize that river otters need to learn how to swim just like us,” said keeper Celess Edinger in a statement. “Tilly’s a great swim instructor.”
Otter pups are naturally buoyant, but they typically are quite reliant on their mother in their first few weeks of life. Otter pups take about five weeks to learn how to walk and sometimes to even open their eyes.
As seen in the video, Tilly uses more than just encouragement to get Tucker in the water.
“It might look a bit rough to a casual observer,” Edinger said in the statement. “Tilly grabs them by the scruff of their necks and dunks them in the water. But that’s natural river otter behavior. It’s how they learn to swim.”
North American river otters are often threatened by trappers. They are rare in the U.S. because of water pollution and destruction of their habitat.
