Meet Dara, the star!

"Dara" means "Precious" or "star"in Khmer, the language of Cambodia. He was the only hairy-nosed otter in legal captivity in the world until his death in 2010.  Now there are NO hairy-nosed otters in captivity and so no chance to create a back-up breeding colony.  We MUST save them in the wild.

Because Dara was kept as a pet, he is completely used to humans, and it would have been very hard for him to return to the wild. He was very friendly and always happy to meet people.

Dara's Story

In December 2007, Dara's mother was killed by a fisherman in Tonle Sap, and he was then kept as a pet, so he is completely tame and accustomed to humans. He lived at the Angkor Zoo in Cambodia's tourist hub Siem Reap, but authorities closed the zoo last year after scores of rare animals disappeared or died. He had been living in a small cage since his capture.  According to the people who rescued him, "the otter pool was small, dirty and having no shelter ... Dara was found in a grimy pool littered with rubbish. ".

Along with other animals, Dara was donated to Phnom Tamau Zoological Garden and Wildlife Rescue Center near Phnom Penh. Here he was kept in a quarantine pen while a large, specially-designed enclosure was built for him, paid for by Furget-Me-Not.  

A traditional Buddhist ceremony welcomed Dara into his new home, a 33-by-50 foot (10-by-15 meter) pen with a large pool and tree trunks to climb on. Dara likes to swim, and climb the rocks. There is also plenty of bamboo and other plants for when he wants to lie in the shade.

Dara didn't like eating dead fish, as the other otters at the zoo do, so he had to have live fish bought for him. Furget-Me-Not pays for the fish for all the otters at the zoo, and also for anything else that they need.

Spring 2010

Sadly, Dara died.  He had been ill and vomiting but seemed to recover and was eating again. But then suddenly he just dropped dead. The post mortem showed that he had some sort of lung infection and also had stomach ulcers. It is difficult to say whether it was some kind of disease or stress related, but the presence of the ulcers suggests stress. But we have no idea what was causing the stress as he seemed very happy and was generally in good shape and was well cared for. He had a good enclosure and was given good quality food, was regularly de-wormed and recently vaccinated. We must remember that there is no information at all available about keeping this species in captivity as they are so rare.

Dara will never be forgotton, and his little life helped the cause of conservation beyond all measure.  He gave joy to everyone who knew him.

RIP Dara

The Future

Our hope was always to find him a mate. Wild adult otters do not seem to adjust well to captivity, and it looks like the best chance is if more illegal pets are confiscated by the authorities, or handed over by the owners, and come to Phnom Tamao. For otters that have been "imprinted", this is the best solution for them as it is so difficult to successfully rehabilitate them to go back to the wild. We would be on our way to the foundation of an "assurance colony" of the rarest otter in the world, but we have a way to go yet - we will need a lot of unrelated otters to create a healthy genetic pool as a backup to conservation in the wild.

We know from wildlife officials that there are still otters kept illegally as pets, and we know they are still trapped in nets, so if an otter is handed in, or confiscated, that cannot go back to the wild, we now have the facilities and some experience in keeping otters. 

Because Dara was such a good ambassador otter, we are now introducing a new mascot: Dara the Otter, drawn by Sam Garton.  We hope you like him!