July 25, 2023
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
A couple of months ago I posted a Bucket report on a mating encounter between two River Otters in my local bay. That incident took place in late April, a typical time for our local otters.
About a week ago I happened upon a family of otters in the very same bay, but this time with two very young otterlings. Almost certainly these are the youngsters who had been recently born by the female otter, hidden away in her den in the thicket onshore, while she and her partner mated nearby. The otterlings would be about three+ months old by late July.
About River otters in general, according to State University of New York,
The average litter size is 2 or 3 (range 1-6). Newborn otters are blind, fully furred, and weigh approximately 130 g (4.6 oz). Their eyes open by 35 days. The young begin to venture outside the natal den about 10 days later. At this age the female begins to teach her young to swim by carrying, dragging, or enticing them with food into the water. She may even permit them to ride on her back for short distances as part of the training. The female also teaches her offspring to hunt by letting them attack and retrieve fish and crayfish she releases near them. Weaning is complete by the time the young are 91-120 days old. They remain with the female until she bears her next litter the following spring.
All these otters looked very healthy and “full of beans”. They were swimming in the bay, as otters mostly do, playing, diving, and it was only after they climbed out onto a low rock that I could see how small two of them were.
It was especially interesting that another adult was hanging around with the mom and her two youngsters. An older sibling? The baby-daddy? I have no idea. Usually a mom and her current youngsters form a distinct family unit while adult males are doing their own thing most of the year. There’s a fair bit of overlap though, moving around and coexistence.
Most of my documentation was video so I’m including a few clips. The action was about 240 yards away with my zoom maxed out, which means even with the camera propped on a railing there’s some jiggling in video…sorry about that. But the social dynamics are interesting. And often mysterious.
1:05 minute video:
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One minute video:
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The mom seemed to tolerate the other adult, though she snapped at him/her once and was watching their interaction with her babies carefully. The other otter was doing a lot of scent marking and grooming.
After a while, mom led her otterlings back into the water. The other adult followed them.
1:05 minute video:
(Note: originally I put a duplicate of above. This is the video I intended)
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They were all evidently feeling peckish! Time for more fishing. Everything they brought up was gunnels, those extremely slippery eel-shaped bottomfish so abundant around here. Adult otters can catch a gunnel in a few minutes and swallow it in a few seconds. The babies, mostly if not completely weaned by now, were doing pretty well catching gunnels but having a hard time getting them down. A few times they tackled mom into giving up the bigger gunnels she’d caught. She didn’t seem to mind really. In between fishing the otterlings did quite a bit of chasing and playing. It’s a good life.
1:24 minute video:
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For some locational context, here’s my view of the bay. The low rock to the right of the island is where the mating took place in April, with the den in the woods onshore to the right of that. The rock where I filmed the family in today’s videos is to the left of the island from my vantage.
This bay has an official map name but I like to call it Otter bay. Otters aren’t around all the time but quite a few call it home.
🦦
Partly sunny and dry the Pacific Northwest islands. Temp in high 60s, low 70s. Light westerly breeze.
What’s up in nature in your neighborhood?
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