Otter sent to Taipei Zoo as a gift from Poland

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on May 12, 2006. It features Miss Flora, a Eurasian otter that was recently sent to the Taipei City Zoo as a gift from the Wroclow Zoo in Poland.

The Eurasian otter is listed as an endangered species on the Washington Accord. Indeed, apart from the Kinmen area, there have been no records on otter sightings in Taiwan for many years. The Taipei City Zoo plans to improve the feeding and exhibition environment of its otters, in the hope that an island-wide otter census can be eventually established.

Miss Flora will be given some time to get used to her surroundings in the Taipei City Zoo. If possible, she will be living with the zoo's resident otter. The Wroclow Zoo plan to also send a male otter to Taiwan in the future, so that the Taipei City Zoo can begin a breeding program.

The director of the Wroclow Zoo in Poland, Antoni Gucwinski, DVM, had attended the World Zoo and Aquarium Association conference hosted by the Taipei City Zoo in the past. After learning that the zoo lacks new blood in the Eurasian otter lines, he urged the Polish government to sign an accord with Taipei in order to provide otters to Taiwan.

The Taipei City Zoo currently has four otters. One is an Oriental small-clawed otter, while the other three are Eurasian otters. Two of these Eurasian otters are from Kinmen, and the remaining otter, a female, is similar to Miss Flora from Poland.