Tag: otters

How otters date?

[I’ve been watching my otters as usual, and I am fairly sure I have been peeping in on how they meet up and find a match. Many of these photos are from a long way off, but they nonetheless tell a story that I hope you will find convincing.]

Most of the winter, if I see otters together I assume they are a mother and last year’s young. They behave like puppies, rolling around, diving in, and playing, often fishing out of the same hole in the ice.

Recently their behavior has changed. I haven’t seen two otters together in a while, and when there are two they occupy separate holes and keep their distance.

A few minutes earlier, there had been only one, using the righthand hole, emerging and walking/sliding a short way off to poop. Then he dived and came up in the lefthand hole, where he stayed. Suddenly, a second otter appeared in the right hand hole. He came out and looked towards the other otter with interest.

Then he went over to where the first otter had pooped and rolled, and had a good sniff:

and a roll:

Both otters then continued to fish from their separate holes for a while. This was slightly untypical behavior, but I didn’t think much of it, till today.

At the far end of the pond, on a warm and very gloomy day, were two otters together. One went off to poop by a large rock, and on its return the other one went off to the same place and used the exact same spot. Nothing very unusual about that.

But when they got back together, things got interesting.

One of them spent some time smelling the other one’s head and neck closely:

At one point the right-hand one seemed to bite the neck of the other one, who wasn’t too pleased, but didn’t move away (no photo!). Then the left-hand one rolled over:

and cosied right up:

A little later, they put their heads together:

Time for a nap:

I am not sure I am interpreting all this right, and I will never know, because I had to leave, and now I am away for several weeks. It is the mating season for otters, so I could be right. Males do bite females’ necks during courtship, and rolling around is typical too (but they roll all the time anyway!) One slight doubt: females are about 20% smaller than males but these two don’t seem to have much size difference?

By the time I get back the ice will almost certainly have melted, and any courtship will have long since been consummated, so I end with a link to the only video I could find of river otters mating. It is very, very long, but around six minutes in you can see a commotion in the water, where clearly something is going on, and then they emerge from the water onto land, already conjoined, and making charming chirping sounds. From then on they stay on land, so you can watch and listen for a while if you want.

I have read that they mate in the water only, but other sources say it can be in the water or on land, and this video confirms that!

The only possible word is sleek

[Back to Lovell, Maine, for now.]

We had had the first proper snowfall of the winter on December 2nd, six inches of lovely fluffy stuff, so on the morning of December 3rd I snowshoed in to our beaver pond. Joy of joys, as I stood on the shoreline two young otters popped out of the ice just a few feet in front of me.

We were all a little startled, but I took a few quick photos:

and after one minute twenty seconds they slid back in:

I stayed put, and ten minutes later they returned, this time checking immediately to see if I was still there:

Since I clearly was, they didn’t hang around, only twenty seconds total this time, but then I saw a third one, on the left, further out on the ice near the beaver lodge.

This one was larger, perhaps the mother, and she was fishing successfully, three different fish over the course of fifteen minutes:

Eating one took a while:

Later, another otter joined her, but she didn’t share her fish. Watch the video here:

After a bit the youngsters appeared, sunbathing:

Looking for the others:

and sliding on the ice:

A communal slide, followed by a dip:

A perfect morning, for me and apparently for them too..

Back at the Ranch: Hanging out on the Ice

For some time I’ve been sending you blogs from Chile, but back at home, even though winter is fairly quiet, there are things to report, so here is a Maine update.

The beaver pond is frozen, and the beavers are supposed to be safely in their lodges, but mine hadn’t got the memo. New Year’s Eve was warmish, and and in the late afternoon I saw a small moving object in the distance on the ice, rear left:

The beaver had decided to catch a few rays:

After half an hour the sun had sunk below the horizon, so he slid back into the water:

but remerged a little later chewing on a twig he had found under the ice, presumably in his stash. I’ve never seen one out in the open in the middle of winter before.

The otters, on the other hand, are regulars all winter long. I will see them three days in a row, then not at all for several days, and then they return. This one had just come out of the water. He is shaking just his head (blurry), while holding his body still (sharp):

They are vigilant out on the ice, but tolerate my presence so long as I am not too close:

This one is pretending to be a mongoose. Once in a while one emerges very close to me, and usually doesn’t stick around:

They pose too:

But best of all is when they play; I think this is probably a mother and two nearly fully-grown cubs. The video is about 2 minutes; they go in and out of the water, and near the end they briefly look straight at the camera.

Back to Chile next time.