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Balbina Lake, Brazil: Giant Otter Project

Conservation at a Glance

• Brazil is the largest country in South America both in terms of size and population. It is home to the majority of the Amazon rainforest, the most species-rich tract of rainforest in the world. The diverse group of species found there includes the giant river otter that live in slower moving rivers in the Amazon drainage basin.
• Due to intense hunting for fur in the 1970s along with pollution and habitat loss, numbers in the wild dwindled. In 1999, with only a couple thousand individuals remaining in the wild, the giant river otter was classified as endangered.
• Giant otters are susceptible to human disturbance. With increasing human activity in the Amazon, research is needed on the adaptability of giant river otters to these changing conditions.
• The Philadelphia Zoo provides financial support for Dr. Fernando Rosas’s research on giant river otter behavior.
• Dr. Rosas studies otters in the Balbina Hydroelectric Lake where they inhabit an area with human-constructed dams. His research will help document the effects of human presence on giant river otter populations and find ways to minimize impacts.
• The Philadelphia Zoo was the first North American Zoo to have a successful giant river otter birth, in March of 2004, and currently is home to one of less than a handful of breeding pairs of giant river otters in the United States.