On February 15th, Ginger, the Oakland Zoo's four-year-old female North American River Otter, gave birth to her first litter; one male named Ahanu and one female named Tallulah. Each pup weighed approximately 100 grams at birth, and were about the size of a stick of butter.

River Otters are one of the few species that exhibit a phenomenon called delayed implantation. This means otters breed in the spring but the fertilized egg doesn’t actually implant until fall. Since North American River otters are not very prolific breeders, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums makes annual breeding recommendations. When Ginger arrived at the Oakland Zoo in 2008, she was just one year old and too young to breed, but the Association of Zoo and Aquariums eventually wanted her to breed with our twelve year old male Heath.

Photo credits: Oakland Zoo

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