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Friday, 4 July 2025

Still good friends on OtterCam

I first read Tarka the Otter about 60 years ago.  When I re-read it last year I had forgotten how much it is to do with otter hounds and hunting (the book was published in 1927 and otter hunting in England wasn't banned until 1978).  The other surprising thing (to me) was how often Tarka met up with and socialised with other otters as I have read elsewhere that otters are solitary creatures, outside courtship and mating.  That fits with what I have seen on the trail cameras over the past few years but recently things have been different.  The resident female split from her cubs just about two months ago and immediately embarked on courting the local dog otter. She was encouraging him very noisily for three nights (courtship is said to last 3-5 days)  but they were still going around together 19 days later.  After that the cameras were recording only solo otters, until now.  Just one video in this post but, 53 days after courtship began, here they are again together.  First the dog, closely followed by the female.  She returned alone five minutes later.  It is difficult to judge from the video but if all goes well cubs should be born very soon.



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