In this month’s Gosforth Nature Reserve Journal, Christopher Wren, NHSN Naturalist, shares his latest footage of the otters, including what the new 2025 cubs are up to!
The otter cub triplets are continuing to delight visitors to Gosforth Nature Reserve. They were born in mid July but we didn’t get to see them until they started to follow their mother around at about four months of age. They grow quickly and will be over five months old by the time you read this. At this age they are still dependent on their mother to catch all their food. The first video starts with mother on the bank with a fish as the cubs all raced to get it. After a tussle one succeeded and the other two followed mother back into the water. When she returned with a second fish only one cub was around to take it. That left one hungry cub waiting by the water’s edge. It was probably worth the wait because the third fish was the biggest. All this action took only three minutes.
Eventually the cubs were full so they used the next fish to practice catching them. This cub repeatedly took its fish back into the water to “catch” it over a period of eight minutes before taking it out of view. I presume it was eventually eaten. This is very interesting behaviour in a cub only about 18 weeks old and seemed to be spontaneous.
The cubs also spend a lot of time playing – which usually involves fighting. In the best episode I have seen the fight went on for 12 minutes and the mother joined in enthusiastically. These are edited highlights.
At other times they are much more relaxed. Otters spend a lot of time out of the water looking after their fur but they also seem to get a lot of pleasure from grooming each other, an activity which probably strengthens the family bonds.
The cubs will be with their mother until late spring next year. By then they will be fully grown and able to catch their own food as they prepare for independence.
Find out more about Gosforth Nature Reserve and the wildlife that calls it home here. You can get more updates on the local wildlife from Christopher Wren on his own TrogTrogBlog.