Lofoten Aquarium
Meet the arctic cod and other species of the Lofoten sea. Feeding of seals and otters.
24 March 2023
Eddie was born somewhere on Sotra outside Bergen, most likely in late summer 2022.
She was found after her mother was hit by a car and was taken home to a family in Sotra. She stayed there for several months before taking the long flight up to us at the Lofoten Aquarium at the end of January 2023. It was initially assumed that Eddie was a boy, but then it turned out that she is a girl. She is going to be allowed to keep her name anyway.
Otter cubs depend on their mother for up to one year after birth. They are protected by their mother and she teaches them everything they need to know to survive by themselves out in the big world. Eddie has not received this training and will never be able to fend for herself in nature. Therefore the aquarium will become her permanent home. Here she gets to feast on fish every day and can show off to our visitors.
Currently, Eddie lives inside the the Lofoten Aquarium. Here she has a lot of space to frolic during working hours. She has to be well watched, because otters are very good climbers and she can get a little “rowdy” when she is on her own. Although she has a lot of room to roam, otters actually like small cramped spaces and caves. Eddie has occupied one of the closets in the back room, where she loves to take a nap when she’s tired. And once she falls asleep, it’s almost impossible to wake her up again!
Every morning, Eddie takes a refreshing bath. Otters do not depend on being in water, but they love to bathe. They are what we call semi-aquatic mammals. That’s because they spend a lot of time in water and are well adapted to swimming, despite being terrestrial mammals.
We at the Lofoten Aquarium spend a lot of time socializing Eddie, using both play and cuddles, and she also gets to play outside in the snow under supervision. Otter cubs play similarly to kittens and puppies, and there can be a lot of play-biting. Sometimes she plays on her own with things she finds, such as a hair comb or a pellet of dog food. She likes to throw this up into the air and chase after it. She has gradually realized that she can eat the dog food too, so sometimes the game ends with a small snack.
When Eddie is old enough, she’s going to move outside into the big otter enclosure. She’ll probably need some getting used to it to get to know the area. Otters are curious animals, but they are also very cautious in new surroundings and can easily be frightened. However we’re sure she’ll thrive in her enclosure once she’s had some time to explore.