A pair of rambunctious river otter pups are now calling Portland home, the newest residents of the Oregon Zoo.

The two pups, a male and a female, were found separately after being abandoned earlier this month.

The female, who is about six weeks old and weighs less than four pounds, was found wandering a construction site near Gold Beach in Southern Oregon. She wouldn’t survive without her mom, so after a brief stint at Wildlife Images Rehabilitation & Education Center in Josephine County, state wildlife officials contacted the zoo to see if they could take her in.

The male, who is about a month old and weighs about two-and-a-half pounds, was found near a golf course in McMinnville suffering from a respiratory infection. He was taken care of by the folks at the Turtle Ridge Wildlife Center near Salem before being transferred to the zoo.

In a perfect world, said Amy Cutting, who oversees the zoo’s Great Northwest area, the animals would be returned to the wild. That will likely not be the case for these two.

"Our preference for them would have been rehab and release," she said in a statement. "However, wildlife officials said that was not possible so we're happy we could give them a second chance. We have a good track record with orphaned otters. Our adult otter, Tilly, was also rescued as a pup, and she's helped raise an orphan as well."

Tilly, named for the Tillamook River, came to the zoo after she was found orphaned in 2009, malnourished and suffering from wounds incurred in an animal attack. She has since raised four pups of her own and cared for another orphaned otter named Little Pudding.

River otters were once prized by fur trappers, but their populations in rural river areas are now robust and the animals thrive in undeveloped portions of Oregon, especially in the southwest and northeast.

The two new pups at the zoo, who have yet to be named, met each other on Friday and took an immediate liking to one another.

"They started playing as soon as we introduced them," said zoo veterinarian Kelly Flaminio. "The smaller pup ate like a champ, and is more interested in solid foods than formula. The female only wanted to play."

They will spend some time behind the scenes while veterinarians make sure they are healthy and gaining weight before being introduced to Tilly. No date has been set for when the public will get to meet them.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

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