Oregon Zoo Says Goodbye To Eddie, The Basketball-Dunking Otter

PORTLAND, OR – Eddie, the sea-otter who delighted visitors to the Oregon Zoo with his ability to dunk a basketball, has died. He was almost 21-years-old. The zoo that they humanely euthanized him after a decline "related to his advanced years."

He had been found abandoned along the California coast in 1998, a pup not able to take care of himself. He was brought to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's rescue and care program.

While they got him healthy, the US Fish and Wildlife Service decided he couldn't be released into the wild. In 2000, he arrived at the Oregon Zoo.

Get all the latest information on what's happening in your community by signing up for Patch's newsletters and breaking news alerts

He thrived at the zoo.

Male sea otters seldom live past 15 years, so Eddie was among the very oldest of his kind," the person who oversees the zoo’s marine life area, Amy Cutting, says. "He was quite feisty as a young otter, and we still saw that spirit come through during his later years.

"He got along great with our two younger otters, Juno and Lincoln, and was often observed wrestling and playing with them. But he was the elder statesman of the group, and they learned to leave him alone when he wanted to rest."

In 2012, when Eddie was 14, he and his caretakers were featured in a story about how the zoo was caring for animals thought to be near the end of life.

That kind of talk was quickly proven to be quite premature.

The following year, his keepers taught him to dunk a sea otter-sized basketball as part of his treatment for arthritis.

The zoo says that the video of him playing basketball has been seen more than 1.7 million times. Last year, the Portland Trail Blazers donated a bunch of enrichment toys and a new basketball backboard with the Blazers logo on it.

Sea Otters are a threatened species and once ranged from Japan to Baja, CA., until they were hunted to near-extinction. They have rebounded to the point where officials are looking into whether they can be reintroduced to the Oregon Coast.

Photo and video via the Oregon Zoo.