A river otter died at the Calgary Zoo last week after a mishap with a pair of pants that was dropped into its habitat for the animal to play with.
A zookeeper found 12-year-old Logan the otter struggling in the otter pool Feb. 11 and tried the save it by
jumping into the area, according to the Calgary Herald. Two Calgary Zoo employees have been reprimanded in connection to the death after an investigation revealed that the pants were given to the otter by one of them
, a Calgary Zoo statement said.
"It's irrelevant how exactly the pants got in there, it's more that the pants got in there in the first place," zoo curator Colleen Baird told the Herald Wednesday following the investigation. "Logan got trapped in one of the legs and he drowned. It was human error and we take animal deaths very seriously."
Baird said that the error of putting the pants in the otter area was "unacceptable." The zoo statement said that two protocols were broken in the incident.
"Our animal care protocols are among the most stringent in the industry and must be followed," she said. "We will be reinforcing our protocols with every member of our Animal Care staff to prevent an incident like this from ever happening again."
CBC News wrote that otters typically live in the wild for eight or nine years. The remaining otters at the Calgary Zoo are 1-year-old Finnegan, 12-year-old Charlotte, and 16-year-old male Callebaut.
Some on social media continued to be upset over the accidental death.
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