5 New Hampshire Otters Who Paint Are Now Nationwide Celebrities

Harry, Peanut, Jelly, Teddy, and Saco are unexpectedly famous.  They're Asian small-clawed otters at the Living Shores Aquarium in Glen, New Hampshire, and a simple painting project, just for the fun of it on Valentine's Day, has become a nationwide sensation.

Talk about a brilliant idea.  I personally stumbled upon this cuteness in my personal Instagram feed because I love following Living Shores, so I called their Marketing Manager, Dylan Henry, to find out more about these cuties.

It was a somewhat last minute one-off where we had our otters paint some one-of-a-kind artwork with nontoxic paint. The first 25 guests that said the password, “Secret Admirer” in the gift shop got a free valentine from one of the otters.

Dylan said that before they knew it, People Magazine picked up on the excitement, and animal lovers from all over the country including New York, California, and Texas phoned and emailed the aquarium asking where they could get some of the otters' masterpieces.

We have enrichment activities at the aquarium. Whether it's watching special events or interacting with our animals, we want to create experiences and this may just have to make the list.

Dylan said his team is now pow-wowing ideas like otter-painting parties and special holiday painting events.

The safety of Harry, Jelly, Peanut, Teddy, and Saco are first and foremost so we want to make sure there's no anxiety  or stress by overwhelming them.  Some of the art projects may be in private but we'll see.  It's clearly something people want and the otters did have a lot of fun.

Who knows, maybe soon these otters will have artist profiles on the Living Shores Aquarium website.

Meanwhile, if you want to feed the stingrays or maybe catch skateboarding lorikeets (members of the parrot family), then click here for details.