\n Two male smooth-coated otter cubs were born at New Forest Wildlife Park on December 7, 2025, to the UK\u2019s only successful breeding pair, Soriah, aged 11, and Song, aged 13.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jason Palmer, curator at the park, said: “We’re not just celebrating two healthy cubs.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We’re contributing to the genetic diversity for a species that’s vanishing from Southeast Asian waterways at an alarming rate.\n<\/p>\n
\n The pair were born on December 7, 2025. (Image: New Forest Wildlife Park)\n<\/p>\n
\n “With only our pair successfully breeding in the UK, these births carry the weight of the UK\u2019s conservation programme.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The smooth-coated otter, native to Southeast Asia, has suffered a 30 per cent population decline over the past three decades, with another 30 per cent decline predicted by 2054.\n<\/p>\n
\n The park now houses seven of the vulnerable animals, representing more than a third of the UK\u2019s entire smooth-coated otter population.\n<\/p>\n
\n The cubs are thriving in the care of their parents and older siblings, including seven-year-olds Anupa and Ananda, and lively one-year-old Banhhea.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lizzy McNamara, senior keeper, said: “Females are dominant and mum runs this romp, but everyone pitches in with babysitting, teaching swimming, exploring together.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Even Anupa, the spoilt mummy’s boy, now gives his fish to Soriah while she’s nursing.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Keepers have been documenting their growth. (Image: New Forest Wildlife Park)\n<\/p>\n
\n The cubs took their first swim on January 23 and passed their health checks at the end of the month.\n<\/p>\n
\n Keepers have been documenting their weekly growth since they were just 12 days old, sharing detailed measurements and photographs with contacts in Southeast Asia.\n<\/p>\n
\n This information is vital for rescue centres caring for otter cubs orphaned or confiscated from traffickers, helping carers estimate age and tailor nutrition plans to improve survival and release rates.\n<\/p>\n
\n The illegal trade in otters is fuelled in part by social media content depicting them as pets.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Park supports Share Savvy, an initiative educating social media users to spot and report harmful wildlife content that fuels trafficking.\n<\/p>\n
\n Visitors to New Forest Wildlife Park during February half-term will have the chance to see the cubs exploring their enclosure with the rest of the family group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two male smooth-coated otter cubs were born at New Forest Wildlife Park on December 7, 2025, to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-422949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}