I'm Micayla.

I am the primary carnivore keeper here at the Lake Superior Zoo.

And today we are going to make our otter diet and see our otters get their mid-day meal.

the otters eat three times a day because while they are the smallest, they eat the most calories per any animal compared to their body size in the entire zoo.

they are basically aquatic weasels, so they need to eat every few hours to keep up with their energy requirements.

I update the diets for the otters monthly based on their weights, but also seasonally based on what kind of fish and what kind of produce we have available to us.

A lot of people don't think about otters as eating produce, but our otters eat produce every single day.

Whether they decide that they're going to eat it or they're just going to shred it, that's up to them.

But we give them the option.

now we have to do their afternoon, which is going to be 400g of smelt.

And so lunch we actually throw out on their habitat.

And so that's our other diets.

Then?

Only the best for our animals.

slice from PBS North