items that were often dangerous to the animal. Neither a hastily erected wire fence nor “keep out” signs improved matters. When the zoo reported culprits to the police, there was an outcry around the city. Sugar cubes and razor blades The cantonal government minister responsible for the zoo was irritated by all the fuss and called for an end to the otter’s “performances”. But Hediger the zoo director was having none of it. The quarrel died down a little once Peterli reached sexual maturity by the age of one. The otter was no longer quite as obedient. But although Peterli was now behaving more like an otter would, he would still come scuttling along whenever Hediger called out his name. He continued to entertain – while visitors continued to throw all sorts of rubbish into the pool. Sugar cubes and other “treats”. But razor blades too. Poisoned bait landed in the enclosure on the night of 5 December 1941. Wardens found Peterli dead in his den the next morning. News of the otter’s demise spread in no time. Newspaper “Der Bund” published an obituary. Otter from Warsaw One of Peterli’s two predecessors at the zoo, purchased for 550 francs when Dählhölzli opened in 1937, had already disappeared without a trace. Zoos in general were anything but safe havens for otters. By 1951, Zurich Zoo had reported its third otter fatality due to an attack by a member of the public. One of its otters had more or less been stoned to death. Dählhölzli initially chose not to keep otters after Peterli’s death. This was until it built a new, safe space situated in the woods in a protected part of the zoo. Dählhölzli’s director Monika Meyer-Holzapfel was ready to purchase an otter in 1949 but was unable to find one in Switzerland. She had to fly in Peterli’s successor from Warsaw. Hunted and misunderstood After seeing what had happened to Peterli, Heini Hediger took matters into his own hands. In publications and on radio programmes, he did all he could to highlight the plight of a species that had been unfairly branded as a fish thief. Didn’t otters devour vast numbers of fish and hunt simply for the thrill? No, said Hediger, explaining that the otters at Basel Zoo each consumed 600 grams of food every day – not kilos of fish, as the press had written. Their diet also included frogs, crayfish, rats, mice and waterfowl. When the otter became a protected species in Switzerland, Hediger concluded that the animal was This diorama dating back to the 1930s at Berne’s Natural History Museum depicts how otters were viewed at the time: as hungry fish thieves. Photo: Keystone Hunter Rudolf Plattner holding a dead otter in Reigoldswil (1927) – there was a nice bounty payment for every kill. Picture source: Basel-Landschaft cantonal archives, StABL PA 6281 02.01 virtually extinct. He believed that the opportunity to learn more about otters had been squandered. He also had no idea why otters were unable to breed in captivity. Knowledge in this area was limited. Switzerland still had between 80 and 150 otters Swiss Review / December 2025 / No.5 21
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