Otters on the ramp

This was the first time the cubs have been up the ramp.  I put it in three years ago after seeing one cub dragged by its whiskers as its mother tried to lift it up the sluice gate.  This mother is used to it and bounded up but you'll see here that the cubs were a bit confused in the dark and took a while to sort it out.  The recording stopped after 20s and they were too far away to re-trigger the camera.

Both cubs are tending to lag behind their mother now as they get bigger and move towards independence.

On another occasion the mother was carrying prey but I can't make out what it is - possibly a duck or a rabbit.  Whatever, it would make a good dinner and one cub was very keen to share and keeping very close behind.  The other was over a minute behind but they did wait for it at the top of the ramp.

The next time they were coming down.  Only two otters which look the same size, so these may be the two cubs.  They are now confident with the ramp and the second one, literally, takes a leap in the dark, landing with a splash.

There has been a lot of coming and going in the culvert this past week.  Here they are both dawdling again and mother has to wait for them to catch up.  There is a rather unsatisfactory blend from the first cub into the second as the camera stops recording after 20s and then restarts.  This is an intrinsic limitation of Browning cameras which are otherwise pretty good.

There was also a brief sighting of a dog otter with prey.  It isn't easy to see but it was carrying a long-legged, dark-feathered bird, so very probably a moorhen.  It went past four cameras but unfortunately it was travelling fast and going away so we only get a view on the first.