Joey the otter hovers tentatively by the side of the pool in his Florida home, the Museum of Science and Discovery.

His furry cheeks burning with shame, he looks nostalgically at his playmates, North American River Otters, Jafar and Marlin, who slip and splash elegantly in the water.

Joey is a river otter who doesn't know how to swim. Believed to have been orphaned when young, his unconventional childhood means that his mother wasn't around to teach him normal otter-ways.

Carers who rescued the animal discovered Joey would happily romp on the rocks, but only stick his nose in the water.

Average otters are amphibious, equally at home at land or water. Keepers tried to help the nine-month-old learn by building him a paddling pool, offering him little fish treats as incentive and increasing the amount of water in it daily.

Soon the otter was happy to go up to his shoulders in the big pool, no longer clinging to the rocks with his tail.

"He spends his days running around, playing in the waterfall, digging in the grass, sleeping in the sun, and wrestling with two slightly older male otters," Kim Cavendish, the president of the museum, said.

"He's very social and loves to play but he won't swim in the brand new pool."

Hoever Joey is young and enthusiastic and keepers are optimistic that he will be pottering around the pool in no time.

Joey is now the Otter Ambassador for the Museum's New EcoDiscovery Centre which will open on 11 November. For now at least he's notter care in the world.