There’s a new kid at Oregon Zoo.
Or rather, there are new kids at the Oregon Zoo. Meet Ruth and Sonia, the newest members of the Oregon Zoo family.
Ruth is a Nigerian dwarf goat and Sonia is a mini Nubian goat. They were adopted in February 2018 but had to be under observation first before they are introduced to the rest of the herd.
They officially met their new family on April 2018.
The two new goats immediately fit right in with their herd. All the goats welcomed them with open arms and even the de facto leader, Molly, welcomed them into the herd.
Once the herd integration was complete, the Oregon Zoo staff wanted to introduce the goats to the rest of the animals, including the river otters.
When it was time to meet the otters, Brianne Zanella, one of the zoo keepers, took Ruth and Sonia through the forested area of the zoo to their enclosure.
Brianne was really excited about this introduction because otters are known to be playful and love to chase.
“I’m really hoping they’ll want to play a game of chase with the goats,” Brianne shared.
Brianne and the goats trooped over to the otters while passing as far away as possible from the waterfalls, which the goats were afraid of.
So the goats are probably not going to swim with the otters.
Ruth and Sonia will soon meet Tilly, B.C., and their four otter pups.
Tilly and B.C. (or Buttercup) were both found orphaned in different locations and brought to the Oregon Zoo for rehabilitation and eventually live there.
Tilly arrived first in really bad shape but she recovered and thrived at the zoo.
When B.C. came, they were hoping he would become Tilly’s companion but they didn’t keep their hopes up.
“Otters are not always compatible, so we feel very lucky that these two get along so well,” Oregon Zoo animal curator Amy Cutting said. “We hope the new pup will be the first of many for them.”
They became so compatible that they became parents to their four pups.
Tilly is a wonderful mom and she taught all her pups how to swim. And this is what Brianne hoped Tilly would show when they arrived with the goats.
They’ve already established that the goats won’t be swimming with them but they can “chase” and play with each other on opposite sides of the enclosure.
When they arrived, the otters were already in the water, eager to meet the newest members of the Oregon Zoo family.
Maybe they already sensed that the goats were coming that’s why they were already in the water. Because the otters were doing a lot of different movements in the water, it captured the curiosity of the goats and they watched in awe.
The goats tried to follow the movement of the otters with their heads and they were just mesmerized.
All in all, the meet-up was a success because it was so obvious that they all liked each other.
Would you like to see the otters and goats play with each other? Watch the video below.
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