PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) -- He is called Oliver and is hailed as the next best thing to Picasso and Salvador Dali -- at least in the world of animal artists!

While Oliver is a typical Cape Clawless Otter, the smudgy, damp art that he created for the Pretoria Zoo earlier this week is anything but.

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Oliver produces another masterwork

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Every year the zoo holds a "zoovaganzer" to raise funds for the animals.

The process of selecting the potential artist is simple: Choose the competitors -- say an otter, a parrot or a gorilla -- supply them with canvas and watercolors and then see what happens.

This year it was Oliver's turn: His winning personality and natural curiosity made him the obvious choice -- other contestants simply drank the paint.

But even Oliver's "curator," Brian Bailey, found it hard to persuade him to paint on demand.

Three large palettes of bright paint -- red, blue and yellow -- were put in his enclosure, surrounded by three large canvases.

Oliver, letting his naturally curious side get the better of him, came dangerously close to being painted himself.

At the end of a long morning watching Oliver walk through the paint, tip the colors over and even chew the canvas, three paintings were ready for inspection.

Full of color, grass, muddy water and paw and fur imprints, the paintings can't be described as masterpieces. And Oliver, obviously his own best critic, would agree.

After all his efforts, he selected his least favorite painting, dragged it into the water and washed away all trace of it.

One of his better works will be auctioned at the zoo on October 31.

Reuters contributed to this report.