Rescued otter pup dies

One of the three
smooth-coated otter pups rescued from the floods in Kaziranga National Park died today at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) where they were being hand-reared.
While one pup, about 15-days-old, has died, the other two have been doing well being bottle-fed and looked after by the CWRC veterinarians and animal keepers, CWRC sources said.
The male pups were found floating on hyacinth leaves by local people in Mahpora (Dagaon) from the fringes of the National Park last Friday.
"The people apparently found the pups while they were fishing. They handed over the pups to the Forest Department staff, who called us to collect them as they could not locate the mother or their den," said International Fund for Animal Welfare - Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) veterinarian Dr Anjan Talukdar.

This is the first instance of the species being admitted to CWRC, a rehabilitation facility run by the Assam Forest Department and IFAW-WTI, which had rescued and released an adult otter in 2009 in Manas Tiger Reserve.
Smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) is found across South and South-East Asia and is listed under vulnerable category in the IUCN Red List and is listed in schedule II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.