What kind of environment do North American river otters need to thrive? Like their homes in the wild, they love fresh, clean water, shallow and deep pools, and plenty of grassy land to run
around on. Otters Kyra and Willie did not have that in their facility. They had a deep pool with no filtration system and a small patch of grass. The exhibit was so rundown that Kyra dug out three times! The exhibit would no longer work, so they were placed in a temporary holding with concrete floors and a water trough as a pool in June 2011. The river otters were stuck in these poor conditions because there were no plans to update or build a new exhibit for them.
For over two years they lived on these concrete floors with just a small pool to swim circles in.
Their keepers continually asked for a different option, but leadership said no. The keepers did
everything they could to enrich Kyra and Willie’s lives, but they couldn’t build a bigger pool. At
the very old age of 20, Willie passed away in 2013. At that time, a new exhibit wasn’t even going to break ground until 2015. Two more years in these conditions just wasn’t acceptable, and finally keepers convinced leadership to explore options for Kyra to move to a new home.
In March 2014, Kyra found that home, with a huge pool to swim in and tons of outdoor space, as well as a new river otter mate to bond with!
Here at Untamed Hope, we never give up on our animals, no matter how hard it is to get them the forever home they need. Having a quality environment created for the specific needs of the species is the first step to providing an enriched and healthy life for each animal. Kyra was able to live out the rest of her life in a healthy environment created with her needs in mind, thanks to the hard work and dedication of her caretakers. The new exhibit in her old facility didn’t get built until 2020, nine years after Kyra and Willie were moved to their temporary holding. The keeper that got Kyra a new home is now our President and CEO. Her success inspired her to find better homes for all animals in need, which eventually led her to establish Untamed Hope, a forever home for animals in need.
