OtterCam in daylight

The trail cameras have been picking up a lot of daytime otter activity recently.  There is no intrinsic reason why otters should be nocturnal.  They have no predators except humans (and their dogs) and they eat mainly fish.  A few thousand years of hunting and persecution probably taught them to seek safety in the dark but for the last 40 years or so they have been protected and it is getting to be more common to catch a glimpse at least in daylight.  My local otters are very used to my cameras, which are well away from people and dogs, so they seem quite relaxed.  This spot at the edge of the water is a favourite scent-marking place and otters call in several times a day.  This was a Wednesday, with three visits.  I think the middle one is the dog but I can't tell if the other two are the same animal or two different ones.

The next day there were four visits, but how many individuals?

And on the Friday just one.

Telling one otter from another isn't easy, particularly on black & white infrared rail camera videos.  The recent recordings in daylight make things a bit easier and convince me that there are three individuals around, the dog and two females.  I suspect one is the female that was courting with the dog recently and the other is last year's cub, now independent.  I can't tell which female is which but the fact that the youngster is still tolerated within the territory may suggest the other one is her mother.

Here are the three.  This is the dog, a bit too close and out of focus, but otherwise fairly easy to identify from his size and build.  He has a pink mark under his chin and a small one on his nose, perhaps acquired during the recent excitement of courtship.

On the video the two cameras recorded simultaneously in early morning but the second one had a bit less light as it wasn't pointing at the water and was still in infrared mode so I have converted the other to black and white as well.  We can see this is the dog from his size and build but the facial markings are more difficult without colour.

This is one female.  She has a pink mark on her upper lip and a pale chin with a diagonal dark mark across it.

This is the other female, the same size and build as the first but with a dark unmarked chin.

I'll keep recording and see how many of these stick around.  I suspect we may see less of the dog as he tries his luck elsewhere after the excitement of the courtship on last week's post.  This is the latest recording of the otter with a pink mark on its lip.  If that heals completely it will make it harder to tell who is who, especially at night.

Courtship on OtterCam

There has been a lot of action on the otter cameras in the past week or so.  I have four cameras all close together in the small gully on the edge of the lake and last week they recorded sixty clips of otters in one night.  I haven't edited or posted all the video clips but have chosen those that show the most interesting behaviour.  Here is what happened in 12 episodes over six hours.

19.34  A female otter went down the bank into the water.

21.38  About an hour later a dog otter went down the bank into the water, sniffing to see who had been down before him.

21.48  Ten minutes later the dog ran a short way up the bank calling, and returned to the water.  It isn't easy to see on the video but if you look for the light reflecting from his eyes when he is in the water you may be able to see there was another otter waiting for him.

21.58  Another ten minutes later the female otter ran right up the bank into the reeds, whistling all the time, and then returned to the water.  She is smaller and has a higher-pitched voice.

22.39  The female otter ran up and back down chittering, a rather different sound to the whistle.

22.40  One minute later the dog ran up and back down.

23.08  Perhaps the most interesting confrontation of the night.  The dog was followed out of the water by the female who was chittering loudly.  She ran back to the water but stayed close to the edge.  When he approached the water she scolded him again so he retreated.  He lay and waited while she swam around but eventually she swam off.  Once the coast was clear he went back into the water and swam off the other way.  I suspect she was encouraging his attention but playing hard to get.

00.33  The dog again went up and back down, calling.

00.40  The dog was chased up the bank by the female.  She returned but he didn't.

00.42  The female went up the bank.

00.55  The female ran down the bank into the water, so quickly that she was almost missed by the bottom three cameras.  She waited while the dog ran down to join her in the water.  The cameras didn't see what happened next.

01.23  The female went up the bank calling.

This is the most otter activity I have seen in one night and I think is typical otter courtship behaviour.  There was a lot of coming and going in the couple of nights before and after this but I didn't see two otters together on the recordings and there was no vocalising.  I read in Paul Chanin's book Otters that courtship can last for four or five days so I think the female otter will now have mated with the dog.  Otter gestation is about two months so if all goes well she will give birth in mid April and we might see new cubs on the cameras in autumn.

I can't tell if this is last year's mother or a new female.  Female otters are sexually mature at two years of age so it won't be the yearling, although I think that may still be around.  Given that last year's mother separated from her cub around the end of November I had assumed that she would already have mated around then but that may not be the case.  I wish I could tell which female is which but it isn't possible on the black & white infrared videos.

Be my Valentine

It's that time of year.  This is the vixen whispering sweet nothings in the dog fox's ear last week.

I am amazed how well the camera did with this photo.  The foxes were 20m away from the light in near darkness and it was difficult to make them out through the viewfinder.  But the camera's autofocus could see them and the picture came out like this. The aperture-priority settings were 1/15s, f/4, ISO 12,800.

Fox News

I haven't been able to see the foxes in my garden for the last two months, ever since Storm Arwen felled a tree that knocked out my wall lights.  With lighting finally restored I have been catching up on which foxes are visiting.  Trail camera monitoring last month showed lots of fox activity and several different foxes but I couldn't identify individuals on the infrared videos.

I am pleased to say that the dog fox and vixen from last year are both still here.  If the vixen has cubs the year this will be at least her third litter.  Here is the dog.  He is as fascinated by the new light as he was with the old one.

And this is the vixen.

The alpha pair sometimes arrive together and are very relaxed in each other's company although the vixen sometimes shows submissive behaviour.  Here she is looking bored in the background as he watches the light.

I have also seen at least four other foxes and possibly up to six.  Marc Baldwin says that dispersal (of full-grown cubs) usually takes place between September and February so it is interesting that so many foxes remain in this territory. Males disperse before females so I presume they are all female as the dog is unlikely to tolerate other full-grown males.  I am fairly sure there were two litters within the family group last year with up to ten cubs, so perhaps it isn't surprising that there are so many still around.

These are the individuals I can recognise.  This fox has marks on its face and a small notch on the left ear.

The following night it reappeared with a nasty wound on its forehead.

The next night, if anything, it looked worse when it was here with the alpha female, presumably its mother.

And last night it seemed to be on the mend.  All through the fox has seemed unaffected by the wound.  Foxes get a lot of wounds, injuries and scars, sometimes from fighting but also from climbing through and under fences and hedges in the dark.

The next fox is small and pale.  There were at least three cubs like this in the family group last year and at least two might still be here but, because I only see one at a time, it it is difficult to be sure.  I have watched one feed for 10 minutes before wandering off.  A few minutes later it, or a look-alike, returned for another feed.

The small fox certainly isn't timid and wouldn't let a larger fox near the food.  I am not sure which fox is in the background because it eventually gave up waiting and left.

It is difficult to get a photo to give an idea of the sizes difference between a normal fox and a small fox because I can rarely get them in the same frame at the same distance from the camera but this will give some idea.  It is really quite striking in real life.

Another fox has a dark scar below its right eye and has long black socks.

This is another large fox with bright colours, no obvious scars and also long black socks.

It will be interesting to see who remains in the family group in the next few weeks as the alpha pair will presumably be planning for the next generation.

Guest appearances on OtterCam

The otters are very used to my cameras and mostly ignore them or give them a sniff as they pass.  Badgers are less keen, both on the red light and the human scent.  They often don't seem to notice if they just walk past but soon beat a retreat if they spot a camera.  Here is one investigating the otter run.  It is in complete darkness of course and sniffs its way around.

On another evening twice a badger went down the gully and retreated when it saw the bottom camera.  The second time it returned to check out the top camera.

Roe deer largely ignore the camera but sometimes take an interest, probably in the hope that it is something to eat.

Other recent non-target species have been wood mouse, brown rat, moorhen, robin, blackbird, teal and mute swan but they don't make for an interesting video.