Nyac, 20, beloved sea otter, survivor of Exxon Valdez oil spill raised at Vancouver Aquarium; lymphocytic leukemia
ZapRatz
'She was a tough girl,' staff veterinarian recalls
Karen Gram, With files from Graeme Wood, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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EXXON VALDEZ SURVIVOR DIES: Nyac, a survivor of the 1989 Exxon Valdez
oil spill raised at the Vancouver Aquarium, died Tuesday from leukemia.
After surviving the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill as a pup and teaching
millions of fans about the spill's devastating effects on her species,
Nyac, the Vancouver Aquarium's oldest sea otter, succumbed to leukemia
Tuesday, leaving staff profoundly saddened.
"She was a tough girl," said aquarium chief veterinarian Martin Haulena.
"When she was oiled, she would have been six months of age and she
managed to survive when a lot of otters didn't."
Too weak to be released into the wild, she stayed at the aquarium, where
she acted as an ambassador for both the effects of the oil spill on her
species and the benefits of rescue efforts.
In the process, she won their hearts, especially those who were part of
the rescue effort and who still work at the aquarium.
"She made quite an impression on all of us, but especially those who
have been here so long were quite attached to her," Haulena said.
At 20, Nyac lived about five years longer than most otters in the wild
or captivity and was showing signs of aging. But Haulena suspects that
the exposure to oil so early in her life may have caused the leukemia, a
rare condition in otters.
"Contact to hydrocarbons and petroleum products has been associated with
different cancers including leukemia in different species," Haulena
said, adding that the aquarium has contacted several researchers to
explore that possibility.
"So even after death, she's going to continue being an ambassador for
the species and really teach us a lot."
According to the aquarium, Nyac was the only known survivor of the Exxon
oil spill to have successfully had a pup in an aquarium: a female named
Kipnuk born in 1993, which was sent to an aquarium in Belgium.
She is known as the "dignified matriarch" of the aquarium's otters.
While the two younger otters would play-fight, pushing each other's
heads under water and jumping on each other, Nyac was more dignified,
Haulena said.
She'd paddle slowly around and float on her back, holding hands with her
much younger partner, Milo. She is the star of a 2007 YouTube video seen
by 11 million viewers worldwide.
In July, staff noticed something was very wrong with the matriarch.
"We found her one morning displaying a number of neurological signs,"
says Haulena. One side of her face was paralysed and she wouldn't put
her face in the water.
An MRI revealed a serious inner- and middle-ear infection. A blood
sample taken at the time indicated the possibility of leukemia.
She was treated for the infection and she seemed to recover. But a few
weeks ago, she started going downhill again and bone-marrow tests
confirmed lymphocytic leukemia.
Nyac is survived by her partner Milo, 9, and two younger otters, Elfin,
7 and Tanu, 4.
Nyac's YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno
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