MEDIA CONTACT:
Sally Anne Giedrys
Communications Manager
sgiedrys@ecotarium.org
(508) 929-2738
(WORCESTER, MA)&emdash; EcoTarium's North American river otter exhibit now has a new resident! The female otter weighs about 10 pounds and was born in March at the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford. She joins the museum's 14 year-old, 22-pound male otter in the exhibit.
The museum will welcome its new otter with an Otter Day celebration on Saturday, December 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All activities are free with museum admission. These playful residents of New England's wetlands will be the day's celebrities. Visitors will have a chance to celebrate with an otter cake, play otter games, make cattails to take home, touch an otter pelt and other artifacts, and attend a public otter feeding in the afternoon. Other scheduled activities include:
North American river otters&emdash; a relative of weasles, badgers, ferrets and mink&emdash; once lived throughout North America, though their numbers have fluctuated. Native Americans hunted otters for their fur and pesticides and fertilizers used by European farm settlements threatened otter habitat. By the early 1980s, species reintroduction programs were created to return otters to the states where populations had dwindled and have been successful in returning river otters to lakes, streams, and coastal marshes in many states. Otters are excellent indicators of environmental health. Like many animals near the top of the food chain, they are among the first species to disappear when their environment becomes polluted.
EcoTarium is an indoor-outdoor museum dedicated to exploring the natural world. The museum is open year-round and offers three floors of interactive exhibits, wildlife habitats, nature trails, ponds, an award-winning meadow, a planetarium, and a narrow-gauge railroad. EcoTarium, located at 222 Harrington Way in Worcester, Mass., is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays 12 to 5 p.m. Open selected Monday holidays and Mondays during school vacation weeks. Admission is $8 for adults and $6 for seniors, college students and children ages 3-18. Free parking is available. For information, please call (508) 929-2700 or email info@ecotarium.org.