Watch: Vancouver baby otters experience snow for the first time

Baby otters experience snow for the first time when gifted a snowman to play with by Vancouver Aquarium staff.

Two baby otters at the Vancouver Aquarium were in for a frozen treat over the weekend, as the mischievous duo enjoyed their first ever snow day.

A video shared by the aquarium shows the excited pair hopping over each other as they flee their watery enclosure and make a beeline towards a three-tier snowman, waiting outside.

As the otters, named Tofino and Luna, inspect the mystery guest, one pup investigates with such zeal that it sends the snowman toppling to the ground.

“Otters are some of our animals that tend to enjoy the snow more than the others, they really love the ice and any sort of cold material,” said the aquarium’s senior marine mammal trainer, Nadine Trottier.

“When it snows, it’s always a really great time for them and they tend to enjoy it a lot. They had a really fun time playing with it.”

When the conditions are snowy, it is a winter tradition at the aquarium for staff to build a snowman for the otters each year. Trottier had made a smaller version for the new pups to experience, using clamps and toys to help decorate it, which the otters were able to play with and push around in the snow.

Both Tofino, a pup of a little over eight-months old, and Luna, who is just short of seven months, were rescued last summer off the waters of Vancouver Island. They required some “pretty intensive medical care” when they were first rescued, as they had been abandoned by their mother and they were both quite dehydrated, but now the two are thriving and are settling into life within the aquarium, said Trottier.

“They are starting to socialize and are adapting well,” she said, adding how both have already met around half of the ten other otters that call the facility home.

While the frozen treat isn’t reserved only for these marine mammals – other animals that live outdoors, including the sea lions, fur seals and harbour seals, also get introduced to Frosty – it is the otters, said Trottier, that are the most appreciative.

“Otters are just more playful animals. They like to interact with different things, and they have front paws, while all our other animals have flippers, so it’s a little easier for them to play with the different objects,” she said.

Sea lions, for the record, were “indifferent” to the frozen guest.

Those who wish to keep an eye on the sea otters antics, whatever the weather, can check out the aquarium’s live stream via its Youtube channel.