A celebration of Mimi the otter

What can we say about Mimi?

After a short illness, we lost our Asian short-clawed otter matriarch Mimi last week. She was an incredibly important otter for conservation, as well as being much loved by our team and our supporters. To commemorate the loss of Mimi, we're sharing her life story from beginning to end.

Early days

Mimi was born in Chessington World Of Adventures and was one of three sibling sisters. She moved to WWT London Wetland Centre in May 2012 before heading up north to us later that year.

In October 2012, Mimi - then just one year old - and her sister were introduced to Musa. Cupid’s arrow struck so fully for Mimi and Musa that there was simply no room for other otters in their world. Mimi's sister was later moved on to another collection to find her own love story.

Musa and Mimi were inseparable from the start, forming an incredibly close bond. They could often be seen feeding together, grooming and *ahem* cuddling. Female otters are usually the most dominant, and this was absolutely true of this duo. Musa doted on Mimi, regularly gifting her food and bedding.

Growing the family

Mimi and Musa together had nine otter cubs, and On 22 May 2015, Mimi gave birth to a single female otter cub, Ruby, affectionately nicknamed 'Squeak'. She was named as WWT Washington celebrated its 40th year and was a welcome addition to the family.

Less than a year later on 3rd March 2016, Mimi gave birth to four otter cubs. The new additions Ash, Tod, Pip and Sam were well looked after by dad Musa and big sister Ruby, who could often be seen taking food into the holt and removing old bedding, replacing with fresh straw.

Here they are at around one week old during a quick health check with very light fur and eyes still closed. Our team tend to leave the young family well alone for as long as possible to allow them time to bond, before starting the process of weighing them, worming treatment and microchipping, much as you would a pet cat or dog.

Another year goes by and on 16th March 2017 Musa becomes dad to another four otter cubs. Buster, Rita, Irene and Shirley came into the busy family of eleven.

Otters aren't born with the ability to swim and need to learn. There's no delicate art to it either. Mimi alongside Musa and the older siblings simply pick up the youngsters and dunk them into the water! It's the exact behaviour otters would do in the wild to get them used to the water, learning to navigate under the surface using their dexterous paws to find food in the shallows.

Making otter history

Mimi was something of a pioneer for her species after she became the first Asian short-clawed otter to receive a birth control implant in what we believe to be a conservation first. The implant was introduced to give her body a chance to rest following the successful birth and rearing of her nine cubs. It also allows stud-book keepers the opportunity to plan a suitable mix of genes into the breeding programme - which I think you'll agree, Mimi and Musa have contributed to hugely! (Do not be fooled by Mimi's grumpy face below... she was a very happy otter really!)

By monitoring her closely throughout this treatment, we were actively contributing to important ground-breaking research on animal management that we hope will benefit the future of captive conservation for this declining species - all thanks to Mimi. She also provided a lot of valuable information of a host of research which helped us and others to understand much more about the physiology of her species and the conditions they need to thrive as Mimi did.

During daily keeper talks, Mimi helped connect tens of thousands of people with wetlands and helped them understand their importance, why they're under threat and what they can do to support them.

Recent times

More recently, Mimi started to look for a quiet life and, never an otter to bow to the will of others, became a little intolerant of her son Buster who is a very energetic and boisterous young man! The team made the decision to create a second enclosure alongside Buster’s main area where Mimi and Musa could have some space whilst still be able to see and smell Buster. This worked very well and all three otters continued to interact with each other whilst having enough space to relax.

What this means for Musa and Buster

Although we are saddened to lose Mimi and will miss her immensely, it's a comfort to us that Musa (notoriously the most loving and laid back otter ever!) and Buster will be reunited in their main exhibit. We know they'll be amazing at getting each other through their loss. Musa is still a very playful otter even as an older gentleman and seeing him and Buster scampering about together again will be reassuring.

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