REVISED: Two Zoo Otters Found Dead

SWAINTON – A male and female otter at Cape May County Park Zoo died a day apart, June 21 and 22. No cause of deaths was immediately revealed in necropsies performed by Dr. Hubert Paluch, zoo director. Tissue samples have been sent away for testing.
The deceased otters “Could have been 12, 13 or 14 years old,” said Mike Laffey, Cape May County parks director, in a June 25 morning interview. They originated in the North Dakota wild and were not from New Jersey.
The three North American River Otters have resided at the zoo since November 2011 when they were relocated from the Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot, N.D. A flood devastated that facility, and the local zoo had space for them, said Laffey. The three had been taken to Roosevelt Park Zoo by that state’s wildlife service, he said.
Laffey told the Herald the same annual procedure had been followed for at least a decade when the otter exhibit is repainted, cracks in its pool filled, and the area restored. The otters were relocated June 19 so three days’ work could be undertaken.
All three were placed in a connected, but separate, area near the exhibit June 19. That area, connected by shift tunnels to their normal area, is well ventilated, he said. The temperature was “not crazy,” and there was adequate fresh water and food, Laffey added.
The surviving otter, an offspring of the pair, was placed in medical holding quarantine, a standard practice in such a case, he said.
Because it is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited facility, Laffey said “The health and welfare of our animals is important to the people who work here.”