Leaving a message on OtterCam

Otter poo is known as spraint and is often left in a prominent position where other otters are likely to encounter it. Spraints and other scent marks are probably used for signalling an otter's presence in or ownership of a territory and it is thought that otters can recognise individuals from the scent.  Spraints are certainly of great interest to other otters which may then add their own note to the message board.

The trail camera recorded a large solo otter, presumably the dog, sprainting at 11 o'clock in the morning, a fairly unusual daytime recording.  The following night the mother and pup came out of the water at the same place and you can see the pup's interest in the scent at precisely the same spot.

As they travel around the territory in the dark otters rely greatly on their sense of smell and their hearing.  They are quite used to finding my cameras but usually sniff as they go by just to check it was me.  This was the pup in the same place on a different night.

On another occasion the mother otter left her own scent mark a bit farther back from the water's edge.  You can see the pup is now as big as its mother.

And on a different day the dog otter stopped by to sniff without appearing to scent mark again.

This turning out to be a very productive spot for the cameras as at least one otter comes by almost every night.  Here is the dog again on a wet windy night two nights ago, checking for scents and moving on.