Another otter’s tale

The baby faced assissin

I cannot hide my passion for otters I have had it since I was a small boy, I don’t understand it, it is just one of those strange traits of life. I don’t however view them as a cute cuddly creature despite their almost fixed grin, much beloved by the media and I have often been at pains to point this out, much to their disappointment, the real otter, one day i might write a book on them.

That cute be-whiskered face hides a fierce and fiery temperament and an astonishing array of teeth set within very very powerful jaws. On top of this is the mustelid mindset of determination and that wiliness never to give in coupled with a brain powering logic to solve problems that most other creatures apart from the primates would find impossible to even ponder.

Eating a prime fat greyling will have some anglers squirming but this is nature at its finest

It is easy to see why so many people are captivated by them I never tire of watching them their graceful fluid movement in the water and their almost comic lollop on dry land, but as I say they are predators and top predators at that. They have too eat to survive it is in their nature to kill and to do so very effectively and efficiently.

The crocodile in our midst

Otters are specialist aquatic hunters they have adaption’s to do so, they are shaped to cut through water effortlessly, their nostrils and ears close under water and they have webbed feet, all of these and their thick double insulating coat make them very effective hunters in their chosen element.

They are however just glorified aquatic weasels and as such will hunt anything that lives or breathes if it is within their grasp, they have too or else they will die. So an otter’s diet is actually very catholic. If you have looked through as many otter spraints (droppings to the uninitiated) as I have over the years then you get a very real picture of just exactly what they will eat given the stakes.

I have found water shrews, rats, kittens, mink, rabbits, mice, water voles, bats and even dragonflies and of course countless bird species from starlings to swans, herons to cormorants, all and many more have found their way through an otter digestive tract at some point.

Two very nervous mallards look on ready for instant flight

So it was little surprise to me that I received a call recently for help from a local wildfowl collection, an otter was paying far to much attention to some rare duck species. I say it wasn’t a surprise, it was a surprise that it had taken so long to realise that otters have this trait and that they were right on their doorstep to do so.

Anyway visiting the site just emphasised just how incredibly ingenious they are at exploiting any chink in anything’s armour, including electric fences. This brazen little chap was entering via the tiniest of faults in the perimeter fence, that the owners had overlooked thinking it to small for an otter or anything to get through. Several rare ducks later and some camera trap footage and they changed their minds.

The camera traps also revealed that this ‘brazen chap’ was actually a ‘chapess’ with two little chaplets in tow. Otters utilise situations of abundance to teach their youngsters all the skills needed to hunt and survive in what is a very harsh environment. This mother was definitely exploiting an abundant resource. The footage revealed how she slipped gently into the pools and took ducks selectively from beneath the surface choosing the smaller or clumsier species in preference to those that could apply a rapid vertical take off manoeuvre.

Like a U-boat carefully selecting targets from the fleet she returned with each prize to her charges who watched diligently from the banks. She also brought them some hors d'oeuvres in the shape of frogs and toads showing them how to deal with both in separate ways, rejecting the skin of the toad and spawn of both.

MMMmmm frogs legs

Unfortunately the entry had to be sealed for the sake of the rare duck who were indeed even rarer now, her midnight feasts were ended prematurely; but at least the cubs will have learned first hand how to take a duck or skin a toad for when they start their own escapades down on a river near you.

They truly are the king of all creatures for me, the ‘king of the flood’, 'the goose footed hunter'.