Watch: Baby Orphan Otter Explores Her New Home [Video]

A charming orphan baby otter has arrived at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, traveling all the way from California. This video footage shows the adorable otter’s first encounter with aquarium staff and his swim in the pool. Since the orphan still doesn’t have a name, she is simply being called pup 681.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the orphan pup was discovered critically underweight on the Coastways Beach in California, north of Santa Cruz. The otter was believed to be about one week old at the time, and weighed only two pounds.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a person taking an evening walk heard the orphan otter crying on the beach. Experts believe that she had been separated from her mother for 16 hours when found.

After weeks of intensive care at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the workers there started searching for a more permanent home for pup 681.

They found it in the Shedd Aquarium.

At five weeks old, the otter appeared to be fit for travel and departed for Chicago.

As reported by USA Today, Shedd already has four other otters and is looking to expand the group. The orphan pup 681 hasn’t been introduced to the other otters yet. Instead, she’s in the isolation pool (seen in the clip above) while the staff teach her the basics. Typically, a mother otter would train the pup survival skills like grooming and feeding, now that job falls to the Shedd Aquarium. Tim Binder, Shedd’s Vice President of Animal Collections, said the aquarium’s training programs have had a long history of success.

“While the process is lengthy, our hands-on experience and long history rehabilitating sea otters allows us to use our expertise to work on saving this pup’s life by providing her with a home and the care she needs.”

In the meantime, people just enjoy watching the orphan otter, the “Welcome Pup 681” video above already has over 2 million views.

[Image Credit: Shedd Aquarium/Twitter.com]