Visitors threw food into a wildlife habitat. Now, a beloved otter is dead.
Source: Washington Post
Visitors threw food into a wildlife habitat. Now, a beloved otter is dead.
By Allyson Chiu June 3 at 5:13 AM
For nearly two years, anyone stopping by the otter habitat at Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium in Tennessee would likely catch a glimpse of Otto.
“A cheerful creature, he could often be found swimming or playing with toys in his pool, even when it was snowing outside,” park officials said about the sleek brown river otter who had become a popular fixture at the sprawling nature preserve in Kingsport, Tenn., located about 100 miles northeast of Knoxville.
But now Otto’s days of delighting visitors are over.
In a Facebook post Thursday, the park announced that Otto fell ill and died after “guests threw food into his enclosure that his body could not tolerate.” It is not yet known what the otter may have eaten, but grapes, which are not part of the semiaquatic mammal’s usual diet, were found in the habitat, park manager Rob Cole told the Kingsport Times-News. A necropsy is being done to determine an exact cause of death.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/03/otter-otto-dead-food-zoo/
Otto the otter at Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium in Kingsport, Tenn. (Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium/Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium)
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