{"id":300660,"date":"2025-10-13T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/300660\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T19:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:14:09","slug":"beloved-western-north-carolina-river-otter-dies-amid-post-procedure-complications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/300660\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Western North Carolina river otter dies amid post-procedure complications"},"content":{"rendered":"

LINVILLE, N.C. (WBTV) – A beloved river otter in Western North Carolina died this month following post-procedure complications, according to officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nova, a 12-year-old otter who arrived at Grandfather Mountain in 2013 when she was only six months old, died on Wednesday, Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

Officials stated that her death was due to complications from a suspected blood clot during a dental procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cNova will be greatly missed by all who knew her,\u201d said Christie Tipton, animal habitats curator for Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation. \u201cShe was a little bright ray of sunshine who was so full of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Nov<\/b>a<\/b><\/p>\n

It is believed that during heavy rainstorms, Nova was flooded out of her den and swept away from her mother. That\u2019s when she got to Grandfather Mountain.<\/p>\n

Officials said Nova was then taken to a rehabber in Lincoln County who \u201cgladly\u201d took the role as her adopted mother. There, Nova reportedly learned how to swim, explore, eat, and play.<\/p>\n

–> Also read: <\/b>Rowan County pond restocked with 400 fish after hundreds die from unknown cause<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Nova was described as very affectionate toward and fascinated by people.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved bounding from one game to the next, her favorites being pushing her toy cups around, swim races with guests and keepers on the other side of the viewing pond, dragging everything into her pond, making big messes for her keepers to clean up, and most of all, playing with Oscar,\u201d said Tipton.<\/p>\n

–> Also read: <\/b>Banana Ball returns to Charlotte in 2026: What to know<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Nova shared her habitat with Oscar, whom officials said she loved dearly. The two could often be found playing exciting games that habitat staff named water wrestling, extreme otter floating, and otter racing.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 WBTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LINVILLE, N.C. (WBTV) – A beloved river otter in Western North Carolina died this month following post-procedure complications,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":300661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[152935,42853,4749,152930,152929,21549,152931,152936,42127,149947,152933,17241,50,519,27680,18373,61382,8743,122856,159,67,132,68,152932,152934,52003,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-300660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-12-years-old","9":"tag-42853","10":"tag-animal","11":"tag-avery-county","12":"tag-beloved","13":"tag-blood-clot","14":"tag-caldwell-county","15":"tag-complications","16":"tag-dead","17":"tag-dental-procedure","18":"tag-linville","19":"tag-mother","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-north-carolina","22":"tag-nova","23":"tag-officials","24":"tag-otter","25":"tag-river","26":"tag-river-otter","27":"tag-science","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-watauga-county","32":"tag-wbtv","33":"tag-western-north-carolina","34":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115368457896907990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}