THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606210731
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: SPECIAL EDITION: A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO THE EXPANDED VIRGINIA MARINE
SCIENCE MUSEUM
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 81 lines
The best time to see the river otters is when they take the plunge.
Outside, lounging beside what looks like a river bank, they are cute and playful. They might be munching on a fishy snack, nuzzling each other or lying on their backs in the sun.
But those who crowd the glass at the river otter exhibit in the Owls Creek Marsh Pavilion will be most delighted when the sleek mammals slip into the aquarium and become beautiful swimmers, diving, arching, dancing in their water world.
Sitting on carpeted steps, a viewer may get quite a show as one or several of the five male otters glide by in their 20,000-gallon tank.
The aquarium is an outside tank with indoor windows that allow the public to watch the otter antics. When they appear from their next-door holding facility, it is as though they have just emerged from the woods. The exhibit's mock river bank, pockmarked by fiddler crab holes, has a small water slide the otters are learning to use for fast plunges into the tank.
The stars of the show are ``Tango'' and ``Cash,'' a pair of otters that came to Owls Creek last July from a Winchester facility that rehabilitates captured wild animals, and three newcomers, ``Pungo,'' ``Rudee'' and ``Willoughby,'' who arrived from a facility in Louisiana that transplants marsh animals to places where their numbers are depleted.
Although naturally curious, the three newcomers took their time venturing from their comfortable holding facility through a plastic tube to the aquarium. There was even some question whether the three would join their fellows by opening day. They were in no hurry.
A video camera equipped with joy sticks lets visitors inside the pavilion pan back and forth in the habitat and zoom in on the otters. And a touch-screen monitor allows visitors to access information on the otters' life history and behavior.
Visitors learn, for example, that river otters are members of the weasel family. They are powerful swimmers and agile, accomplished hunters that use keen sight and smell, as well as sensitive whiskers, to detect and zero in on prey. They're not particular about their victims, whether fish, frogs, crabs, salamanders or birds. They have strong jaws that allow them to crunch shellfish.
They are sociable and playful, given to sliding down mudbanks and snowbanks and skidding on ice.
Adults are 3 to 4 feet long and weigh between 15 and 25 pounds. They have short, thick legs with webbed feet and claws and chestnut fur that is short and dense.
They generally live beside rivers and streams where they build dens with underwater entrances. Despite their name, they also venture into salt marshes like Owls Creek where the food supply is plentiful.
In the marsh, otters are an important part of the ecosystem because they are at the top of the food chain. They eat just about everything in the marsh, from birds to fish, crabs and frogs, controlling the size of many other populations.
Yet, when not hunting, they're anything but ferocious.
``They're a curious, inquisitive, playful animal that's amusing to watch,'' says marine mammal specialist Chip Harshaw. ``There's a personal appeal that draws people to them. They have it all.''
The otters aren't the only marsh attractions inside the Owls Creek mammal exhibit.
Clue: I'm the only mammal in the United States to carry babies in a pouch. I live in the woods, but visit the marsh for a meal. If you chase me, I might pretend to be dead. Who am I?
From a choice of buttons with little footprints on them, the visitors may choose one of four answers: opossum, raccoon, nutria, muskrat.
If the quiz-taker chooses right, a darkened window lights up and a three-dimensional scene of the animal and its habitat appears.
Visitors also may feel fur from each animal, examine its tail and rotate its skull on a small platform.
For most people, this may be the closest they get to the elusive residents of the marsh, many of whom hunt by night and sleep during the day. ILLUSTRATION: STEVE EARLEY
The Virginian-Pilot
River Otters are playful, sociable creatures. by SS