25 May marks World Otter Day for 2022!
The day helps raise awareness of the dangers faced by these wonderful creatures and to educate people on how to help protect their natural habitats.
Here is a special blog dedicated to these marvellous mammals and specifically looking at a day in the life of 'Haha' our North American river otter and the favourite food and activities.
A typical day could look like...
Morning - Haha enjoys a breakie of sprat and chick
11.30am - Meet Haha for our daily talk, where she will enjoy some more snacks of sprat, roach, herring and smelt - delicious!
Lunchtime - Haha has her lunch feed of sprat, roach and prawns along with some enrichment
3pm - Visitors can meet Haha for an afternoon talk and for yes you guessed it...more food! A scrumptious selection of sprat, roach and herring
Evening - Haha has a second enrichment feed of the day including more sprat and smelt. Bon appetit!
Haha fact file:
Age: 13 years old
Favourite foods: smelt and roaches head
Favourite enrichment: feeder balls and cardboard boxes
Where to find Haha: At the otter pool at Back from the Brink
Otter threats and adaptations
There are 13 different species of otters living across the world and 12 of these are sadly decreasing; 7 of these are classed as vulnerable and 5 are endangered.
The threats they face now are mainly caused by people:
Awesome adaptations of North American river otters:
Keep an eye on our social media @wwtslimbridge for updates on Haha and for all our other wetland wildlife! Thank you to Living Collections Assistant, Lauren Edwards, for the lovely images and insight into Haha's life!
For World Otter Day educational resources such as otter colouring sheets, take a look at the International Union for Conservation of Nature Otter Specialist Group.