Four baby otters at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium will soon be on public view.

The two male and two female pups were born Jan. 22 to 8-year-old Annie and 17-year-old Country. They have spent the past couple months undisturbed in the den with their mother.

Otters are born blind, deaf and without teeth. Their mother moves them around and cares for them in the first few weeks of life until they develop the capability to handle themselves. At almost 2 months old, these pups just started teething and showing curiosity about what is outside their den.

"We want to minimize the amount of time she is separated from them. It could be upsetting to her, as you can imagine," said Henry Kacprzyk, curator of reptiles and Kids Kingdom. "The fact is they're well-bonded. They spent enough together she knows their smells, she knows their chirps."

Their first veterinary exam was this morning. Doctors checked the pups' vital signs and weights, administered vaccines, determined their sex, microchipped and shaved a small bit of fur off the animals for identification.

You can hear one of the males chirping in the video:

This is Annie's first litter at the Pittsburgh Zoo but likely her third overall. She had pups at the Clearwater zoo and may have had a litter while living in a rehabilitation facility. River otters typically have two or three pups their first time and subsequently have larger litters.

The Pittsburgh Zoo has had three other river otter litters in the past.

There are no firm plans for what will happen to the pups once they mature, Kacprzyk said. They want to ensure the animals are healthy and developing as expected. But he has already received an email from Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Annie's former home, asking for one of the pups.

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North American river otters are a protected species in Pennsylvania. Early European settlers trapped the animals for their pelts and nearly obliterated the regional population. Across North America, the otter population had declined by 75 percent by 1900.

"Beavers were considered extinct in the Eastern United States by 1845," Kacprzyk said, "and the otters were right after them."

Beginning in the 1970s, the Pennsylvania Game Commission spearheaded a program to reintroduce river otters in the region. Additional efforts to clean waterways have helped the population grow and expand its range. The most dense populations can be found in northwestern and northeastern sections of the state.