Baby Otter Saved By Wildlife Rescue After Mom Tragically Passes Away

The life of a wildlife rehabilitation specialist is not an easy one. Every day they are confronted with tragic situations, for which they have to make difficult and sometimes painful choices. For some animals, help and rescue has arrived too late. For others, “saving” them from imminent death means condemning them to a life in captivity—and that can be a difficult and expensive proposition.

For most wildlife centers, the goal is always to rehabilitate and release back into the wild, even with baby animals who for whatever reason could not be raised by their parents. Like this adorable North American river otter, who was recently discovered to be the sole survivor of a terrible attack.

The baby river otter in this video, who rescuers named Ozzy, was found after its mother and littermates were killed by a dog. With no other options, it was taken in by the River Bandit Wildlife Rescue organization in Farmerville, Louisiana. The rescue is run by licensed wildlife rehabilitation expert Leslie Greene, who has been running the center for eight years and funds it entirely herself with the help of donations and her active social media presence.

Related: Otter Asks for Cuddles in the Most Child-Like Way

As such, videos like this one, of the painfully cute baby otter, are vital to making sure the animals she rescues have the resources they need to survive and thrive before being re-released into the wild.

River Otter Pups

North American river otters usually give birth to one litter of pups a year, consisting of about three to four pups per litter. Though they often give birth a year after mating, they only gestate their young for around two months. This truly bizarre situation occurs because of a mechanism known as delayed implantation, where a fertilized egg develops only into the extremely early blastocyst stage, then stops developing altogether until environmental conditions (such as seasons and the mother otter’s ability to care for a new litter) are optimal for the egg to implant and begin developing into new baby otters.

This is especially important for otter pups as they remain with their mother for a year after birth, growing, developing, and learning the hunting and other skill they will need to survive in the world without her.

River Otter Pups in Captivity

The good news is that river otter pups can be raised in captivity and returned to the wild. You just have to take several precautions in raising them.

The first priority should be reuniting the animal with its mother, if she can be found and is safe. In this case, the mother otter had been killed, so there was no other choice.

Secondly, you will want to limit the pup's interaction with humans and especially with dogs. This wild animal will have a natural reluctance to approach people and domesticated animals, and you don’t want to train it otherwise.

If the otter is not yet weaned, it’s important to feed it a formula mixture that will match the nutrients it is supposed to receive from its mother’s milk. There are many guides online on how to manage this.

As always, the proper way to care for orphaned pups is to turn them over to licensed wildlife rehabilitation experts. Do not try to rear an orphaned wild animal in your own home.

Ozzy the otter is well cared for in this official rescue center, and thanks to their robust social media, you can see him growing and thriving for yourself.

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