Hours of Ottery Fun

[den]

Asian small-clawed otters in their new exhibit. The glass panels are arranged so that you can see under the surface of the pond, but they're too fast to get a good photo.








Chewing a fish thrown by a keeper. The arrival of the bloke with the bucket causes great excitement among the otter mob.



tomorrow: bongos, onagers, takhis, giraffes and a wombat

Comments

[chezmax]

Adowamable!

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

Oh these are just awesome. Do they have a view of the underwater as well?

The only time I can get pics of the otters at our zoo are when they're sleeping.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Yeah! You can see right to the bottom of the ponds. But the otters are too fast to get a photo.

[tropism.livejournal.com]

Very nice pics. :) I lvoe the bottom one.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Cuuuuuuuuuuute. :) They're a bit like our local river otters.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

They're 3/4 the size of river otters, according to the chart.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

OH OH OH OTTERS OH THE CUTENESS *dies*

I'm sorry, otters (and kittens) reduce me to incoherent cutedness in record time. :D

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

They're Otteriffic! :)

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

When I was in Astascadero CA last year we went out to Morrow Point and stopped by a nature center. Apparently there are supposed to be sea otters in the area, and they like to sleep in colonies in big drifting rafts of seaweed offshore. I saw a raft of seaweed but no otters:(.

I have an exam due this afternoon, it's one a.m, and here I am failing yet another d20 roll vs cuteness dismally:D. Somehow I am glad I don't have a rampaging puggle rubbing against *my* leg.
I love insomnia:P.

*squeeeee!*

[thryn.livejournal.com]

so ... much ... ottery ... cuteness ...

water ferrets! i need several, i accept deliveries.

Re: *squeeeee!*

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

These guys are tinier than our otters, not by much, but a noticable difference.

Of course if you imported asian otters, the local otters would picket you for taking jobs away from native otters.

[skipai.livejournal.com]

OTTERS!!!!!!!!

*bouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebounce*pant*bouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebounce....

Wheee, sorry. But yay!!!!!!

Awe!

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

Must keep posting pictures of cuteness! These are great!

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

(smiles) dear gods I *do* miss my wildlife rehab days. Thank you for the pictures and the reminders..... damn they are cute!

[jim-lane.livejournal.com]

MANY years ago, in my newspapering days, a local wildlife rehab outfit (woman and her husband, run on a literal "shoestring") called me at the office to say that she'd just been brought a pair of infant otters. Mom had been killed by a bulldozer cutting into the den (upset the dozer operater!) and they found the two pups, eyes not yet open, unharmed.

Someone remembered this rehabber-woman and the amazing work she did (we gave her LOTS of publicity) and tossed the pups into a cardboard box and drove them posthaste to her home/rehab center. She immediately contacted several local vets---and called me. I hotfooted over with a camera, to find two perfectly healthy little "squeakers", unhappy with all the attention (probably missing Mom, too) but greedily snarfing down a hastily-concocted infant formula.

The vets examined them, then one noticed that they had the most incredible SPICY scent; not strong, not rank (like adult otters) but just plain WONDERFUL---and *different* from each other, too! We spent several minutes passing the mites from person to person, each one of us "snorting" them. (Really!) Of course this pissed the pups off to no end, and then I got to poke a tiny bottle's nipple in one angrily squeaking mouth---and after a few pulls of formula (which made its belly quite full) it quickly fell asleep in my hand, the nipple still in its mouth.

Has to be one of the most memorable things I ever did in my decades of news work---

Note: At that time NOBODY in animal rehab had yet *successfully* raised infant orphan otters to adulthood *and* released them into the wild. They both grew into yearlinghood, but the female caught a bug and died before they could treat her. The male, however, was released in a remote area, and was observed for a number of years. He mated and fathered several generations of pups.

Before he was released I came to understand just how intelligent---and ingenious!---otters are. Whenever anybody (including the woman who raised them) would go into their enclosure, or even into the fenced yard where they would be released to romp, the human would HAVE to tuck his/her trousers into his/her boots, or at least socks. Otherwise, the otters would quickly climb up the INSIDE of the pants leg, heading right for TENDER areas! They KNEW doing that drove the humans crazy, and they happily chased the humans round and round, otter-chuckling all the while, until the humans either escaped, or simply stopped and the otters discovered that the human had "fixed" the pants, and the *inside* route was unavailable. They didn't try to climb the *outside* of the pants legs; that was no fun, but they were always looking for ways to make the humans jump and yell, then the otters would go do something else, otter-chuckling in obvious delight.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

otter pups... that would be so cool.

I think the Dubbo otters know the pants-leg trick, too. I wondered why the keeper put bicycle clips on his pants before he went in. Now I understand.