Otter Pups Take Their First Swim ｜ BBC Earth

After being abandoned by their mothers, the orphans were brought to Wild Instincts Wildlife Rehab Center. On arrival, they were weak, defenseless, and would not have survived the night. Attempting to mirror their wild diet, center manager Mark is giving them chopped fish and milk formula. But he has concerns about the weakest orphan. He came to us with kind of a bad leg. He injured the joint on his right rear leg, so we're not quite sure whether it's going to heal enough for him to be released or not. And he also did a slight injury to the joint right in here on this leg also. And even the good leg is not necessarily a good leg. So what we're going to do is try to find a zoo for him if he's not able to be released back into the wild. And if we're unable to find a zoo, then he may have to be euthanized if we can't find a place for him to go. To keep any attachment to a minimum, it's Mark's policy not to name any of the animals in his care. Now eight weeks old, the cubs need to tackle an essential survival skill, learning to swim. Curiously, baby otters don't really like water. So Mark needs to teach them their most important life lesson. But water isn't something to be afraid of. Just like their mother would in the wild, Mark makes soothing calls to reassure them. Each time they try to get out, Mark plops them back in. But their swimming lessons don't last too long. That's because of another surprising quirk of otter biology. Their coat doesn't become waterproof until they're 12 weeks old. Until then, being wet could lead to hypothermia. So surrogate mom Mark does what he can to help him. Normally in the wild, what they would be doing is rolling around in the grass and the dirt to kind of get some of the water off themselves. And so we can use the towels to kind of help us out a little bit. Wild otter cubs face exactly the same issue. So the adults only take them for short dips to stop them getting cold and waterlogged.