More new arrivals

Well its taken several years and there have been some false starts but at last Carmen has had a litter of cubs and is taking good care of them.

Carmen has had litters before but none of her cubs has ever lived beyond three days but on Friday 20th February at tea time she gave birth to at least two cubs and today they are 3 weeks and two days old and we are really hopeful that she will continue to care for them.

After previous births Carmen became distressed and moved her cubs from one location to another, often through water, resulting in their death. The cause of the distress was not easy to identify and may have had multiple causes.

This time we decided on a different approach; first of all we introduced her to a new mate, Tino, an unproven male, in November 2008. He has a rather pushy character and is quite a contrast to Carmen, who can be quite retiring. We then gave them separate holts some distance apart so that they could get away from each other easily and left them to their own devices.
When we thought that Carmen was pregnant we decided to leave Tino in the same enclosure, a tactic that has worked before with William and Hilda (and resulted in the birth of Pluto in October last year). Normally we would remove the dog otter prior to birth so that his presence doesn't upset the expectant mother.

Carmen seems to be reassured by Tino's presence. She often seeks him out and if she can't find him she will pop her head into his holt and whistle for him (four sharp blasts usually!) and out he comes. They greet each other with a few sniffs and a quick play and once she is happy that he is there she goes about the business of feeding etc. Once or twice since the birth he has ventured a little too close to her holt while she has been some distance away resulting in a fiery but brief attack from her. He hasn't suffered any visible injuries so far because she doesn't drive her attack home, its more a defensive display to remind him to keep his distance unless she is there right beside him. When she is with him he has been seen looking into her holt and hasn't received any rebuke so it appears that he can approach with permission and under escort. Tino has become very subordinate and we haven't seen any aggressive behaviour from him at all.

On Saturday 14th March we did have a few nervous moments when Carmen was seen carrying one cub around the pen with another in her tunnel. She was obviously agitated but after a few minutes she returned them to the holt. That's the only time we had seen the cubs since the afternoon they were born. We are still worried about upsetting Carmen and are giving her a wide berth whenever possible. Although we haven't seen the cubs we know they are still there because we can hear them. We sometimes use a small radio transmitter strapped to the holt to eavesdrop on new mothers but there's no need for that in this case because the cubs scream like mad when Carmen feeds or toilets them.

The next two weeks are very important; if the cubs get to five weeks old and their eyes open they have a good chance of survival in the longer term, so fingers (and everything else) crossed.

Pluto continues to be the cutest thing ever; I've just seen William (his dad) lying on his back and Pluto lying on top of him attacking him playfully. Magic.

On a sad note Zephyr, our Asian Short Clawed Otter and head of the Family group, died in her sleep last Tuesday. She was 13 years and 4 months old and is sadly missed.