SUAMICO, WI (WTAQ) — After escaping his enclosure at the NEW Zoo and Adventure Park in Suamico in March with his buddy Ophelia; Louie the otter is still on the loose.
Carmen Murach, Curator of Animals for the NEW Zoo says “Louie has chosen to be a wild otter.”
Since his escape, Murach reached out to the previous zoo where Louie used to live before coming to the NEW Zoo.
“He was actually trapped as a nuisance animal in a pond in another state, and made his way to that zoo that way,” said Murach. “So by that time he was already an adult otter.”
Murach says Louie is perfectly capable of surviving in the wild; adding she is happy he has “found a life that appeals to him.”
The NEW Zoo is still getting some reports of otter sightings, but there’s no way to tell if it’s Louie or another wild otter.
Otters that are doing well in the wild typically move around. Since there have not been any reports of one otter returning to the same place for a series of days, the zoo does not believe Louie is in any harm and will let him be.
“If he were a non-native, exotic, or an animal we would worry that he wasn’t capable of surviving, we would be searching far and wide,” said Murach. “But we’re kind of honoring his desires.”
Ophelia, the other otter who initially escaped with Louie, returned to the zoo on her own a few weeks after the March escape on April 1. She is in perfect health, but is acting a little different since her return.
“She’s a little shy without him [Louie] here,” said Murach. “She’s a little less inclined to be out in the habitat and swimming around as actively as she was when there was another otter around.”
The NEW Zoo has been in talks with the Otter Species Survival Program about identifying another male otter to pair with Ophelia at the zoo; no word on when that may happen.
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