6 Adorable Baby Otters Join Six Flags Menagerie

Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson is welcoming six new adorable baby otter pups into its theme park this weekend and visitors to the Safari will be able to see them.

The litter of Asian small-clawed otters includes two baby males, named Jackson and Baxter and four females, named Cali, Roxi, Pearl and Sushi. Each baby otter currently weighs less than one pound each but will be approximately ten pounds when fully grown.

The otter pups are being  bottle-fed every four-to-six hours and they'll be residing in the theme park's Safari Discoveries section, which is an interactive animal-area. Park visitors will be able to watch the otters learn to swim this fall at the "Seafari Theater's" underwater viewing pool.

“Raising otter pups is just like raising children,” said Dave Peranteau, supervisor of animal training at Six Flags, in a news release.  “They love to sleep in our arms.  They’re such cuddlebugs.”

Paranteau also notes that otters are very intelligent and social animals.  “We hope that their interaction with our guests will help raise awareness for the plight of their species.”

Asian small-clawed otters are found in the wild in fresh water rivers, estuaries, swamps and lakes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, but due to hunting, pollution and habitat destruction, they're protected by the Species Survival Plan.