In this month’s Gosforth Nature Reserve Journal, NHSN Naturalist Christopher Wren shares new footage of the otter cubs as they pass the six month mark and begin to learn how to fend for themselves.
The cubs are over six months old now and are growing fast but they still rely on their mother to catch their food. As they become more independent they are less often all three close by their mother’s side so when she catches a fish there is usually no competition for it. Here one of the cubs shows how to eat a raw fish in 40 seconds, mostly without using its paws.
Otters mainly eat fish of course, but being carnivores they also will be happy with amphibians, crustaceans, small mammals and birds. Ducklings and other young birds are a delicacy in springtime but occasionally there is the opportunity of something bigger. One night last week the mother went quickly past one of the cameras with two cubs in very close attendance and something in her mouth. The view is brief but on slow motion I could see she had caught a drake mallard. By the time they reached the next camera she still had the duck and wasn’t letting go. Unfortunately she then took it away as I would have loved to see how she dealt with it. All three cubs followed, hoping for a share of the spoils. (The moaning sound is from the mother otter, not the duck!)
Here are a couple of videos from about a year ago which haven’t been shared here before. The mother otter then had two male cubs at about the same stage as the present three. She caught a fish and gave it, still alive, to one of the cubs but unfortunately he dropped the fish down a gap between the boards. He went in frantic pursuit and amazingly managed to squeeze through a gap which is only about three inches wide. I think the fish must have got away because seconds later the cub was back for another look on top. Eventually it had to give up, lesson learned and still hungry.
Next time the mother was more careful and handed over the fish away from the water. If you listen carefully after she whistles she makes a low-pitched cat-like mewing sound that I hadn’t then heard before. It must be to encourage the cub to come and take the fish and is similar to the sound she made holding the duck in the second video above. Two minutes later the cub appeared on an adjacent camera with the (now dead) fish and played with it in the water for a few moments before bringing it out to eat.
The present cubs will have to develop their fishing skills before they become independent in a few months’ time.
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.