A big surprise on OtterCam

Or perhaps two small surprises.  I have kept a camera in the culvert all the time, just to keep track of who is coming and going but I wasn't expecting to see new cubs for some months.  These are so small that they can't even climb into the culvert and mother had to pull them in.

Once they were safely in the pipe they could only just manage to walk along it.  The mother was constantly turning and waiting for them.  These are the smallest otter cubs I have seen.

I have only just put the ramp back by the sluice and I am so pleased I did.  The cubs are too small to climb the ramp so after checking that the coast was clear the mother picked up the first one by the scruff of its neck and pulled it over the sluice.

She then disappeared, presumably to put it somewhere safe.  The second cub was stuck at the bottom of the sluice and its calls became louder and increasingly desperate.  After what seemed like a long time the mother reappeared and was just taking it up the ramp when the camera reached the end of its 60s recording.

Here's the video.

Paul Chanin's book Otters (2013) says that otter cubs stay in the natal holt until nine or ten weeks of age and don't go into the water until about 12 weeks.  I reckon these cubs can only be about three or four months old - if so they were born round about New Year.  My previous recordings showed the last cub was still going around with its mother on Christmas Day but was on its own by the turn of the year.  So it is just possible that these cubs were born to the same mother as last time if she gave birth around New Year.  If that is the case she would have mated last October and yet the dog otter was really putting himself about in December.  Odd.  I wonder if that dog otter is not the father of these cubs and the mother went elsewhere to give birth to keep out of his way.

These cubs are really too small to be following their mother around.  This all happened at midday so I think the mother was moving the cubs to a different holt - either because she thought they were unsafe where they were or to take advantage of a better location.   I expect she will mainly be going around on her own until they are a bit bigger.  Over the past week the camera showed 12 other traverses of the culvert by a solo otter but I have no way of knowing which one, or whether there is more than one.  However, I did see two otters heading south through the pipe 11 minutes apart which strongly suggests they are not the same animal - in which case this mother will have to be careful as not all other otters will welcome the cubs.  As soon as I see more of them on the trail cameras you can be sure I'll post it here.