OtterCam - In the pipeline

There is a lot to learn for a young otter - how to catch fish, how to stay safe, how to get around the territory - which is why otter pups stay with their mother for over a year.  Otters often use man-made structures such as pipes, culverts and conduits as they travel around so this seemed a good place to set up the camera.  It was mounted on a support in the stream bed just outside the pipe and gave my first view of the female with her two new pups.  I think they were probably born around March and are about six months old.  In this still frame the mother is in the middle.  (The pipe is only 75cm [2' 6"] in diameter so you can see that otters are really quite small.)

The first time they encountered the camera the pups turned and ran, taking their mother with them.  I don't know if it was the sight of the camera or my scent that put them off but after that they got used to it, although they were still wary as they passed.  On the second part of this brief montage the family is heading north past the camera on the following night.

One limitation of a trail camera is that the animal has to be in the frame and the camera has to "see" the animal before it starts recording.  Add in the camera's reaction time (usually around half a second) and a fast-moving animal and the delay becomes quite noticeable.  The Browning cameras I use record clips of only 20s at night with a short delay in between and you can see that limitation on this next video as well.  At the start mother and one pup (pup 1) are already halfway along the pipe while the second pup (pup 2) is back on the sluice and doesn't make it over.  Mother obviously realised she was one pup short and went back while the camera wasn't recording.  There was a 16s gap and when it started recording again mother was just passing the camera again but pup 2 was very uncertain, worried either by the camera or the (2 inch!) drop at the end of the pipe.  It retreated a couple of times before creeping past.  If you listen carefully just before the end you can hear a little warble above the sound of the water which I think is the mother encouraging the pup (or the pup complaining to the mother).

You will notice that pup 2 appears to have an injury on its right rear leg, although it seems to be moving OK on the video.

There are also wounds on the mother's right shoulder and right rear leg.

After that I didn't see mother and pups for a few days but I did pick up a lone otter which was twice spooked by the camera and turned and ran.  As it did so I am pretty sure I can see it is a dog otter - and it has no injuries so is definitely not the mother.  It could be one of her previous pups.

On the next few nights I saw only the mother alone in the pipe and I feared the worst.  Her wounds are clearly visible and perhaps look like bite marks - there is also one on her left hip.  She found some Waitrose sardines in the pipe.  I wonder where they came from?

Then a couple of nights later I saw the family again.  On this montage pup 1 appears in front of the camera and turns and goes back.  Note that it now also has a right shoulder wound.  Seconds later mother passes the camera followed by pup 1 but pup 2 doesn't appear.  Realising that, they go back for it and you can hear pup 1 complain as it slips in the slippery pipe.  All three then run past the camera and pup 2 pauses to look at the camera.  I am not sure if it has a problem with its right back leg or if it also slips in the pipe.

I carried on monitoring the pipe and two nights later a large lone otter sniffed the camera before heading through.  I guess this is a male but it appears to have two scars on its left haunch (whereas the other male was unmarked) so I think it is a second male.  The water was already a lot deeper.

In retrospect I think the lone otter I saw at the start of September, a couple of days before this series started, was the dog otter that had no injuries.  I now think neither of the dog otters (assuming there are two) is the father of the pups and one of them, perhaps the larger scarred otter, is trying to kill them in the hope that female will produce his own offspring.  The family's injuries were probably sustained as the dog otter attacked and the mother defended the pups. (Female otters probably breed only twice in a lifetime and this is at least her second litter so she has a lot invested in them.)  Male and female otters meet only to mate and the pups are raised solely by the female.  Male territories are large and overlap several female territories but there are also yearlings in the population which have not yet established a territory.  We definitely have four otters and I suspect there are five, for now at least - one female, two pups and two males.

The image many people have of otters is of playful, furry friendly animals but the reality is that they are wild predators in a battle for survival and life can be very hard.  Although the prospects for otters as a species have improved in recent years, there are many challenges in life for an individual.

In the last couple of weeks I have lost track of the otters.  The persistent heavy rain has meant the the water levels have been very high making it difficult to find somewhere to position the camera and perhaps also changing the otters' routine (not that they have much of a routine).  I eventually managed to get a camera in again yesterday.  As soon as I find out what has been happening I'll post an update here.