The two otters peek out of their transport cage while being released into the wild. 

A pair of orphaned river otters discovered in Cove Palisades State Park earlier this year have been rehabilitated and released back into the wild.

The otters were released into an undisclosed tributary of the Deschutes River this week by Think Wild, the wildlife rescue nonprofit that helped care for the animals after they were first located in June.

Think Wild continues to monitor the otters following their release with trail cameras. To give them a boost as they acclimate to natural surroundings, the nonprofit is providing fish remotely through a tube.

It has been considered a success so far.

“Staff and volunteers were excited to release them back into the wild. They exhibited all the normal behaviors we’re hoping to see — lots of digging, fishing and exploration,” said Molly Honea, a spokesperson for Think Wild.

“It’s satisfying that we were able to keep them alive and let them be wildlife,” she said.

Honea said the otters have enough instinctual behaviors in them to know how to survive in the wild. “They start to figure out what is successful for them,” she said.

Since July, the otters have been in the care of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast in Astoria — Think Wild lacks a facility in Bend to prepare them for a return to the wild.

During their five-month stay in Astoria, the otters were mostly left alone to prevent them from being habituated to humans. The staff monitored from afar as the young otters learned to hunt and care for themselves.

Think Wild is now raising funds to build a new rehabilitation facility for otters and beavers at its location in northeast Bend, anticipating that more beavers and otters will end up there in the future. The approximately $100,000 project is in the fundraising and planning stages. Around $32,000 in community donations had been raised as of Monday.

Honea said current plans are to break ground on the facility in the spring and have it complete by the fall of 2025.

The facility has taken care of four beavers since 2020, along with the two recent otters.