You really otter meet the newest member of the Prospect Park Zoo.
This week, a 3-month-old North American river otter made his debut at the Brooklyn zoo.
The little guy (who does not yet have a name, we are told) was born in mid-February, zoo officials said, and is just now old enough to join the world outside his birth den.
River otters are born “toothless with closed eyes,” according to an announcement about the new pup from the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoo. Newborn otters stay in their dens with mom for about two or three months, at which time they learn to swim and begin eating solid foods.
The new river otter pup, at right, poses with his mom in their semi-aquatic habitat at the Prospect Park Zoo. (Photo credit: WCS/Julie Larsen Maher)
Otters are members of the weasel family, which also includes wolverines, mink, badgers and ferrets and are known as somewhat solitary animals, the WCS said. However, the group said river otters “can be quite social.”
The pup is now on view with his otter mother at the Prospect Park Zoo’s Discovery Trail exhibit, where you can also see tufted deer, prairie dogs and emu.
The otter is the latest in a series of tiny additions to the Brooklyn zoo’s exhibits. Since last year, the Prospect Park Zoo has added the world's tiniest foxes, three teacup pigs, two baby red pandas and a baby baboon.
