A 10-pound sea otter pup has found his new home at the Shedd Aquarium after being rescued by Alaskan wildlife officials.
The pup — which is being temporarily referred to as Pup EL2306 while a proper name can be determined — will stay behind closed doors as staff help raise him and get him acclimated to his new environment, Shedd officials said in a news release.
He was saved by the Alaska SeaLife Center on Oct. 31 near the town of Seldovia, which is 250 miles south of Anchorage. The center said the pup had been “vocalizing in distress” and was dehydrated, malnourished and injured when he was rescued.
“With this newest addition to our rescued population of sea otters, we’re committed to his long-term care and continuing to create connections for Chicagoans to this important keystone species,” Peggy Sloan, chief animal conservation officer at the Shedd, said in the release.
Shedd staff members traveled to Alaska to bring back the otter. He arrived Nov. 29 and is being bottle fed while eating small portions of clam a few times throughout the day.
Shedd officials said otters this young require “intensive care” — between feeding, grooming and checking the pup’s health — and cannot be released back into the wild because they need their mothers for care as well as an education in how to hunt and forage.
One of the most important parts of what they need to learn is how to groom themselves, as otters rely on dense fur rather than blubber to stay warm in cold waters.
Eventually, the pup will join the Shedd’s other five otters — Luna, Cooper, Watson, Suri and Willow — who are also rescues. The Shedd is one of 11 institutions in the country caring for rescued otters.
The northern sea otter is considered “threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, though the northern sea otter populations have started to recover.
“We are thankful to partners like Shedd Aquarium that can support this effort for otters that need a relocation and cannot survive in the wild, and we’re excited to continue to follow his journey at his new home,” said Jane Belovarac, wildlife response curator at the Alaska SeaLife Center, said in the release.
The otter is the third animal to come to the Chicago area from Alaska in recent months after the Brookfield Zoo took in two 10-month-old Alaskan coastal brown bears who had been orphaned.
