Wednesday 5 February 2014

Two Shetland Otter families interact at 'lay up'- Bushnel trophy cam footage


(note blogger seems compress quite a bit so best viewed as is instead of full screen)

This headland 'lay-up' was being used by several otters throughout most of the summer, including two families; a mum with a single cub and a mum with two. This footage shows the two families kind of surprising one and other as they all arrive to use the lay-up more or less at the same time. When more than one resident female share a stretch of shoreline they generally tend to be related and well acquainted with one another and when they meet, which they will invariably do, their interactions are quite sociable, often even affectionate but usually brief. It is often the case that in such situations that there might well be two or even more generations along a stretch of shoreline.

In this clip its not just the interaction between the two families that's interesting but you can also really hear their calls, mainly the cubs contact call but also various frustrated 'whickers' and 'whines', beautiful noises.

This footage was actually shown on BBC's Countryfile when I had them out doing a bit on otters in Shetland in the summer.