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Blast from the past - from 1989!

Lutra Canadensis - River Otters - Vancouver Zoo before the Zoo was dismantled and the Otter Tank moved into the Vancouver Aquarium. I for one spent many hours watching the crazy antics of these River Otters as they dove in and out of the water, sometimes sliding down the waterslide sometimes splashing the audience of visitors that would gather at the tank boundaries. At one point in the late 1980s one of the animals had to undergo an operation to remove a stomach full of pennies, nickels and quarters as visitors would throw coins into the tank to make a wish.

One of the Vancouver Aquarium’s most beloved and well-known animals, its 20-year-old sea otter Nyac, died on the morning of September 23, 2008. This recalled from memory past the playful creatures by nature who would amuse crowds of people with their curious acts - Nyac came to the aquarium in 1989 after being rescued from the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska. She gained international fame last year when a video was posted on YouTube showing Nyac and her companion Milo holding hands. Due to public pressure from animal activists, by the year 2000 all of the Vancouver Zoo had been dismantled, covered in or destroyed, with all the animal stock sold to other zoos around the globe.