Tazo got off to a rough start. The orphaned northern sea otter pup was found stranded in June 2010 in Homer, Alaska, after a storm separated him from his mother. Scared and confused, he was just two or three weeks old and four pounds when a Homer resident discovered him. The Alaska Sea Life Center took Tazo in for a month and provided initial care, and then connected with the New York Aquarium to find Tazo a home.
Aquarium keeper Nicole Pisciotta stepped in, and took the cross-country flight to Alaska to stay with the young pup. The 10-year veteran of the Aquarium has worked with sea mammals for many years and soon became his surrogate mother. She bottle-fed him a nutritious sea otter formula made of blended clams, sugar, vitamins, and half-and-half. She used a comb to groom his fur, an important sea otter behavior. (In the wild, a sea otter’s dense, waterproof coat is its most important protection against the cold. To keep its coat in good shape, it must be meticulously clean.)
Nicole and Tazo flew home to New York, where Nicole taught her colleagues how to care for him. While the pup required round-the-clock care at the start, he has now begun to take care of himself. Instead of six meals a day, keepers give him three, and they’ve introduced solid foods into his diet, like squid and clams. He's now weighing in at a healthy 27 pounds.
The curious otter enjoys attention from the staff, and playing with his many toys, which include rubber tire biters and frozen treats. Although he is old enough to groom himself, he especially likes having the keepers towel-dry and comb his fur.
Later this fall, Tazo will move into the Sea Cliffs exhibit, where he will share space with Jacob, a southern sea otter. Northern and southern sea otters are similar in many ways, but southern sea otters are considered a threatened species, native to coastal areas of California. Northern sea otters can be found off the coast of Canada and Alaska.
Watch a video of Tazo’s day care >>
