Lottie (Harriet and Tam's cub) is doing very well and might be developing a bit of "attitude". She is very pushy (like her mum) and has taken to stealing her dad's food without fear of any retribution (because mum is on hand). She tries the same thing on with the keepers too and usually gets away with it (same reason). The three of them get on well (unless food is involved) and, apart from digging a huge hole and managing to collapse a 9 foot section of concreted water way, are well behaved.
Cinnamon and Leap continue to do well, although I do sometimes question their hunting skills. I have seen both of these otters hunt successfully, but the other day, after a large meal, they were rolling around in the water together when a drake landed in their pen. They gave chase, caught it quickly, and then let it go whilst they played with each other. The drake seized his chance and tried to make off, but as soon as he legged it they chased and caught him again, but, as before as soon as he was captured the two otters lost interest and started to play with each other. This happened once more before the duck worked out how how to escape from the two playful predators (i.e do it quietly and slowly) and flew off, apparently unscathed.
Biggy, Smalley, Tor and Libby are still all living together. Libby is exceptionally shy and needs very careful handling. It might be that Libby is the first agoraphobic otter that we have ever encountered; we are trying various strategies to overcome this and we are having some but not complete success. Tor is still stupidly cute but scarily strong. the other night (yes, in the dark) I was pottering around in their pen when he jumped onto my lap and started opening and closing his mouth very gently ("play with me") I took my cue and found his "octy" (a toy octopus he's had since he lived at home with us) and gave him a bit of a roll around with it and once he was satisfied that we were still close friends he let me get on with what I was doing. He is very strong, he isn't at all aggressive but I do worry that he might make a mistake that involves my fingers and his teeth......
Dasher our tame Muntjac continues to be the major criminal at the Otter Park; holding up members of staff for monkey nuts, squeezing through the barn door to burgle various food bins, and worst of all stalking staff until he gets his grapes!!
We are fighting the weather (has it been raining?) whilst we get on with winter maintenance and a brand new pen for some exciting new arrivals in the near future.
Overall things look very good considering the appalling weather; we've only lost a dozen or so large trees (time to sharpen the chainsaws) and a small landslip here and there. Lets hope it dries up soon.
