I get to see a lot of pictures like this one above, just half an otter or an otter's tail as it dashes past, too quick for the camera. When I watched this video from last week there was a big surprise 10 seconds later.
It was surprising for two reasons - originally I wasn't expecting to see them until next month (until they have been seen in the past few days), and when cubs are this young they usually keep very close to mother. However, these two are very small and maybe they just couldn't keep up. They had certainly never seen a trail camera before. Here's the video.
Unfortunately the Browning camera only records for 20s at night and the cubs didn't re-trigger the camera before they moved on. If my calculations are correct these babies are no more than 14-15 weeks old, so only just weaned. I think the otters probably mated in mid May, meaning the cubs would have been born in mid July. Paul Chanin's book Otters (2013) says that cubs don't leave the natal holt until 10-11 weeks of age and don't go into the water until they are three months old. These two obviously can swim already but they are a bit slow and unsteady walking. I hope to have more news soon.
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