It’s not quite that time of year, but sometimes nature has her own schedule. In spring female otters come darting out of the den and look for food, letting their children swim about and see the big world. They’ve been holed up for two months, using the lodge some nice beaver left behind. She goes without a meal for a good long while nursing the kits and emerges much changed! To say opportunistic males have a minimal role in otter rearing is too long a word for their brief involvement. Last night Jon stumbled onto a churning uncountable mass of pups at the river by the power plant where he works – he was eventually able to identify 8 little heads, which seemed to divide in two directions before heading home.
lots of otterlets!!!!At least 8, not 3 feet away from me!!! The water at the bank was just boiling with little bodies and tails, then they saw me and the water was full of huffing periscoping otter heads, then they were gone. Very cool!!
Here’s some footage of another otter pup sighting to get you in the mood. The footage at the end shows some lovely pups swimming underwater.
All this means that when our massive current slows down, we should keep our eyes open for pups of our own!
