Growing up as an otter cub looks to be such fun. Two nights ago was by far the best fight (play fight) I have yet seen. It went on for about 12 minutes and yielded over 100 videos on the several cameras. Each camera will record for only 20 seconds at night and takes up to a second to restart so the frantic action is rather disjointed. Add to that the otters constantly disappearing out of the frame and it is rather difficult to put it all together. I spent all yesterday evening sorting through the videos. This is not constant action but a few edited highlights from four cameras so you'll get the idea. It started rather suddenly with two cubs fighting but the third cub and then mother joined in and the action was crazy.
Two nights before that they were all much more relaxed. I have seen mutual grooming before but never like this. Otters spend a lot of time out of the water looking after their fur but they also seem to get a lot of pleasure from grooming each other.
Here is a short version of the video.
If you have time this is most of the whole episode (over three minutes). It is quite relaxing to watch as well. The mother seemed to be very thirsty and several times took a drink.
The otters are producing so much video at present that I can barely keep up. I already have more and will post it soon.
Thank you so much for all your hard work Chris - the videos are just priceless!
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