Otter Pup Learns to Swim at Oregon Zoo

While they may be naturally buoyant, two otter pups at Oregon Zoo needed plenty of help learning to swim when they first started to take the plunge in April.Tucker and Nellie were born in February and had only just started taking to the water, keeper Celess Edinger said in a statement from the zoo.Footage shows the pups’ mother Tilly encouraging Tucker into the water and lifting him by the teeth to stay afloat.“It might look a bit rough to a casual observer,” Edinger said. “Tilly grabs them by the scruff of their necks and dunks them in the water. But that’s natural river otter behavior. It’s how they learn to swim.”