Watch This Baby Otter Learn to Swim for the First Time

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It’s not just human parents that get frustrated with their children from time to time. In this adorable video, a mother river otter persuades her reluctant baby to take a swim. The video, as seen on Jane Godley’s YouTube channel, offers a funny scene complete with narration.

The baby otter clearly doesn’t want to go in the water, but the mother has other ideas. After nudging gets her nowhere, she grabs the little one in her mouth by the scruff of his neck and they both go for a swim. When they’re done, she drags the baby out by its tail.

While adorable, it also seems a bit harsh. But is this normal behavior for river otters? How do otter moms teach their young to swim? Let’s find out.

Who Were the Otters in the Video?

The video, hilariously narrated on Godley’s video, originally came from the Oregon Zoo. The two North American river otters are Tilly, and her pup, Molalla (nicknamed Mo). In the video, Mo is about nine weeks old, which is just the right age when baby river otters learn to swim.

How Did Tilly End Up at the Zoo?

Tilly was rescued as an orphan when she was only two months old. She had been attacked by a cat and was found alone without a parent or siblings. Zoo officials don’t know if Tilly was abandoned by her mother or if the cat had dragged her away from her den. With her injuries and young age, she wouldn’t have survived in the wild.

Today, Tilly lives in the Oregon Zoo where she has a mate, has raised her own pups, and also raised another rescued orphan pup. Zookeepers report that Tilly is an excellent mother despite having lost her own mom at a young age.

Why Mo Was Getting a Swimming Lesson

We may think that a water-loving mammal is born knowing how to swim, but baby river otters need to be taught. Another surprising fact is that the otter pups don’t want to go into the water, but have to be forced.

In the video, Tilly drags little Mo into the water and also needs to teach him how to dive. She does this by holding her pup in her mouth and diving around in the water. While it looks tortuous to us, being forced into the water and dunked is how pups learn to not be afraid of the water. It takes repeated lessons, but one day Mo will be as agile of a swimmer as his mother. By the time he is grown, he’ll be able to hold his breath for eight minutes underwater.

Like river otters, sea otter pups also need swimming lessons from their parents. Baby sea otters spend a lot of their time in the first month or two hanging out on their mom’s bellies and nursing while she floats on her back.

How Do River Otter Pups Develop?

The pups are completely helpless when they are firstborn. The mothers give birth on land in dens and the babies are born blind, without teeth, and unable to move very much at all. The pups won’t even open their eyes for the first month and mainly spend their time nursing and sleeping.

By around two months of age, which is where Mo was in the video, the pups are mobile and ready to begin swim lessons. Though reluctant, it will only take about two months for Mo to learn to swim and dive for his own food. In the wild, river otter pups stay with their mothers for about one year until she has another set of pups. River otters usually have about one to three babies per litter.

Where Do River Otters Live in the Wild?

North American river otters can be found living throughout much of the United States and Canada. Although they are called river otters, they can be found in many different freshwater bodies including rivers, ponds, marshes, and lakes. Though they spend a lot of time in the water, they make their dens on land.

Are River Otters Endangered?

River otters were once in danger of becoming extinct because they were so heavily hunted for their fur. Today, conservation efforts have helped their populations rebound and they are considered a species of least concern.

Despite conservation improvements, otters are still in danger of losing habitats due to pollution, human development, and climate change. Scientists consider river otters a bellwether species. This means when otters live in an area, it’s a really good sign that the waterway and habitat are healthy. By keeping watch of river otter populations, scientists can monitor the overall health of an ecosystem.