ECHO PRESS RELEASE
Burlington, VT (May 12. 2019)-- Can River Otters handle the gelid Vermont winters better than we can? Come to ECHO Leahy Center and find out!
Come May 1st, ECHO Leahy Center, in Burlington, VT will be opening a new exhibit featuring River Otters! Interact with these new creatures and learn about the Vermont winter river experience. There will be an indoor and outdoor pool housing 15 otters for visitors to observe ECHO’s new friends! After watching the slipping and sliding, learn how otters’ fur can endure the rambunctious, and aquatic lifestyle. Acquire the skills on how to protect otters’ preferred habitat. Vermont works to preserve and defend mothers and newborns from hunting season, as well as offer programs that focus on wetland protection and restoration to maintain current otter population. This exhibit will be held until June 15th of 2019, so come down to make new aquatic friends before they go!
ECHO is working to initiate a conversation about river otters in Vermont; this exhibit will be a perfect way to learn more and be a voice in the community. According to Columbia Marine Biologist, Henry Burrows, “the loss of habitat and over trapping in the 1800’s led to a decline in their numbers in Vermont. However, the river otter has made a comeback since.” Now that the exhibit is up and running, families are welcome to interact with these otters and become knowledgeable about the river dwellers. Burrows also mentions how amusing it is to “watch otters slide over 22 feet on the ice or down a riverbank.” ECHO has been working on the opening of this new exhibit for a while now, and is excited to open it to the public!
About ECHO
ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain is a 501(c) non-profit organization. ECHO’s mission is to motivate and involve families in the jubilation of scientific revelation, fascination of Earth and its environments, and the nurture of Lake Champlain. For this exhibit, it is ECHO’s mission to engage the people of Vermont in its discovery and knowledge of River Otters in the state’s rivers, as well as to educate on the species as whole.