By Ashleigh Wolbrink
On May 22, John Ball Zoo opened its new otter exhibit by welcoming guests to come to “Otterpalooza,” an event that gives guests the chance to see the recently unveiled otter exhibit, In addition to the otters, guests can also watch performances by a juggler, an aerialist, a hula hooper, a bubble performer, and several local bands. Grand Rapids Community College had a table at the event on Friday, and gave out free stickers and temporary tattoos featuring the River Raider.
The new exhibit is a massive play place for the four young otters, Bruce, Slyde, Quiggly, and Crush, with plenty of water, grass, and sandy areas.
“There’s more complexity to their habitat,” Andy McIntyre, the Chief Operating Officer at John Ball Zoo, said. “So there’s vegetation, there’s sandy areas, there’s a stream, a shallow pool,and a deep pool. There’s a cave area for them. There are just so many more options for them, as otters, to express their natural behaviors that they do by utilizing these different areas of habitat.”
The otters’ new habitat is 2.5 times larger than their last enclosure, giving the otters a place to express themselves, in addition staff and guests can interact with them in a better way.
The new exhibit is located immediately upon entering the zoo. Guests are able to get a full 360-degree view of the enclosure, along with getting to see underneath the otters’ pools, and access to a platform where they can stand and look at the entire enclosure.
“It looks like the otters have a lot of room to, like, hang out. It’s super cool,” Abbie Kozel, a Grand Rapids resident and zoo member, shared. “We live right down the road, so we go to the zoo all the time.”
The staff at John Ball Zoo is able to enrich the otters more through the way that they train and feed them.
“Rather than delivering things (food) at very specific times, we can do things at all different times and do it in ways that encourages their natural foraging behaviors. So we call them fish cannons,” McIntyre said.
Fish cannons are used by keepers to push fish out into the different pools so the otters have to hunt for their food. Keepers can also push the fish at different times, so every feeding time might be different throughout the day or week.
“It’s also nice to see how much investment the zoo is putting in to make it, you know, a better place for all of its members and its visitors and as well as the animals, and those are gorgeous exhibits,” Maddy Lankford, a Grand Rapids resident and zoo member, said.
Now that the otters have moved to a better and bigger enclosure, their old habitat is going to be repurposed for beavers, which are expected to move in after all the improvements are made.
Guests can visit John Ball Zoo to see the new otter exhibit and attend Otterpalooza events throughout the weekend, May 22 to May 24. Friday the event will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday the event will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The event is included with purchase of a regular admission ticket. Tickets can be bought online on the John Ball Zoo website or at the door. GRCC students can stop by the Center for Student Life and Leadership office, located in the Student Center, to receive a “Go See GR” card for free admission to the zoo.
