Grandfather Mountain’s Santee the Otter dies at 13
According to Grandfather Mountain Animal Habitat staff, Santee was very intelligent, handsome and tended to be a bit lazy at times.
Photos submitted
Santee the river otter, believed to be around age 13, has died
after a battle with lung cancer.
After noticing his breathing pattern had suddenly
become irregular, trainers took him to the veterinarian on Monday, where he succumbed to the
disease. An autopsy later revealed his condition to be cancer, covering the majority of his
lungs.
Santee came to live on Grandfather Mountain in February 2002, when he was around one
and a half years old. He arrived with his friend, Nottaway, to a not-so-welcoming couple of girls,
Oconee and Nola. Santee’s introduction to his new friends was a very slow, careful process that took
more than a month.
Due to him having such an aggressive personality, their first meetings
involved a lot of screaming, wrestling and chasing. Despite all their disagreements, Santee soon
had two new friends.
According to Grandfather Mountain Animal Habitat staff, Santee was
very intelligent, handsome and tended to be a bit lazy at times. He loved taking naps, tunneling
in leaf piles, sliding in the snow, snorting at his keepers and chasing live fish. Santee was
often seen carrying leaves, pine needles or branches to his bed in order to make his nap as
pleasant as possible.
Known affectionately as “the walrus” on account of his large size,
Santee will always be remembered as a favorite of the habitat staff. Santee is survived by Oconee,
Nottaway and Luna, the three other river otters of Grandfather Mountain. Luna and Nottaway
can be viewed in the otter enclosure at the Grandfather Mountain Animal Habitat.
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