IPPL’s Headquarters Sanctuary has always been home to at least one or two Asian short-clawed otters. Shirley fell in love with this petite, playful species when living in Thailand, and she has taken in a number of retired animals over the years. They are preferred for aquatic parks because they are small and relatively manageable, compared to other otter species.

At the moment, IPPL has six resident otters. Each of our three couples has their own pond, hay-filled house, and fenced-in wooded yard. They eat frozen smelt (a kind of small fish), gizzards, and otter-cake, a special home-made recipe that includes eggs and fish-flavored catfood, which our red-shouldered hawk neighbors like to steal.

They are adorable, lively little animals; our gibbons Michelle and Louie-Louie like to watch their antics. Bubbins will do an impressive series of back-flips when swimming around her pond. And Dua was already a YouTube star before he got here; at his previous home, he was taught to play the piano for treats.

Our otters have special friends, Liz and Pete, who visit regularly and bring special treats. Once Liz and Pete brought little live crabs for them to eat, and one of them attached itself to Dua’s nose: he was so surprised to have his food bite back, for once!

Satu and Agape

Agape is the former pet of a dentist in Colorado. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo had accepted her for care, but had no other need of her since (due to her uncertain parentage and her imprinting on humans) she could not be incorporated into their captive breeding program. Her keepers let us bring her to South Carolina in May 2007 to be a companion to our neutered male otter Dauber. Dauber had lost his long-time companion Ricky to old age a few months earlier. When Dauber passed away in December 2008, we looked for a companion for Agape. We found that the Monterey Bay Aquarium was planning on closing its otter exhibit and that the brothers Dua and Satu needed a home. When they arrived in June 2009, Satu immediately showed a strong interest in Agape, so he got the gal!

Dua and Bubbins

Dua came with his brother Satu from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After Satu showed himself determined to be Agape’s mate, we looked for another female, who could be paired with Dua. Bubbins arrived at IPPL in March 2010. She was born in April 2005 and was a surplus animal from the Cleveland Zoo. We put her with Dua right away, and the two of them got along just fine from the beginning.

Neville and Malais

These were surplus animals from the Dallas Zoo who came to IPPL in August 2010. At the time, Neville was eight years old and his female companion Malais was seven.