All Asian Small Clawed Otters that participate in our encounters are born and raised at our facility from captive born parents that came from two different zoos (2 from Europe and 2 from North America). 

1. Some of our other animals are also born here as part of a conservation breeding program.
2. Some of our animals are surplus from other zoos, which means that they had more of one species than they needed. 
3. Some of our animals are rescues (less than perfect animals from breeders, animals from research facilities, or confiscated animals from different State Departments). 

Regardless of how the animals came to be here, we make great efforts to make sure that they are all well cared for both physically and emotionally! We are a USDA and California Fish and Wildlife permitted and inspected facility and are in excellent standing with both of these governing organizations. We work closely with two veterinarians and rely on the 30 plus years of professional exotic animal experience of our president as well as our 25 volunteers who come from the veterinary as well as the zoological world.

ASIAN SMALL CLAWED OTTERS DO NOT MAKE GOOD PETS

As cute and charismatic as otters are, Nurtured by Nature wants you to understand that otters, as well as most species of exotic animals, make terrible pets and are best kept in zoos and/or the wild. A short list of reasons why Asian Small Clawed Otters do NOT make good pets is as follows:

1. Keeping otters and exotic animals is a full time job not to be taken lightly. Asian Small Clawed Otters (ASCOs) are extremely intelligent and social and should never be kept alone.
2. ASCOs have a very fast metabolism and urinate and defecate all at the same time, something called sprainting, which they immediately smear around to mark their territory.
3.  They are emotional animals and need lots of stimulation in the way of activities and exercise. A very important chore at Nurtured by Nature is keeping their toys and enrichment fresh and new.
4. They have short tempers and most people, including zookeepers, learn very quickly that you do no want to cross a romp, which is what a group of ASCOs is called.

Nurtured by Nature / Animal Educators never withholds food to make an otter do something (like tricks or to go to the pool). All swims are voluntary and initiated by the otters. A hungry otter is an aggressive otter!

Currently we only have the one inclusive otter swim encounter which includes interacting with the other animals as well as the otters.  The new Otter Playland will also include all of the other animals along with the otters once it is available.  Right now we do not have an encounter without the otters.

All of our programs are voluntary for the otters and if we do too many swim encounters then the otters no longer enjoy it and it can become an undesirable situation. Your safety and our otters’ welfare are our two top priorities and this is why we limit the number of interactions. The schedule is based on that and making sure that we keep availability for the Make-A-Wish kids as well.  Additionally, our waiting list is currently more than 50,000 people long, so under these circumstances, we are unable to fit extra people in if reservations are full.