The Saga continues, but with a twist...

If you're a regular here you'll know by now that Biggy and Smalley have been injured by Raymond and Thor. They've been separated and Biggy and Smalley are now back living with a British otter cub, Ellie; the boys are recovering well after a course of treatment and are much more like there old selves and no permanent damage seems to have been done.

It took nearly 3 weeks to introduce Ellie to Biggy and Smalley so its quite a time consuming process.

Our newest arrival, Lola, another British cub has been with us for nearly four weeks and is well on the road to recovery so we have decided to begin introducing her to Ellie and the boys. Over the last week or so Lola has been going in with Ellie, Biggy and Smalley for two or three hours a day of closely supervised contact (thick gloves on for the keepers, just in case). Lola (aged 10 weeks) can't swim yet so all of the contact is on dry land.

As usual Biggy and Smalley have been little stars and after their initial aloofness have welcomed contact with Lola just as they've done with the numerous other otters they've looked after. They actively seek her out to play, sleep, groom and are really gentle with her.

The same cannot be said for Ellie, who at about 16 weeks old is quite a bit bigger than Lola. After a period of fear, then shyness Ellie now seems to regard Lola as a toy to be dragged, thrown and generally abused. We haven't seen this sort of behaviour in such a young otter before and we're worried that Lola may get hurt before Ellie comes round to regarding her as a companion.

We had hoped to be able to introduce Lola to the group once she could swim (which won't be too long because we're giving her plenty of encouragement and opportunities to practice and she's starting to really enjoy it - so much that she bit Sonia the other day because Sonia had to end the lesson and get on with other duties!) but that can't happen until we're sure they'll get along. So at the moment Lola will be kept inside until a) she becomes a competent swimmer and b) Ellie decides to be more sociable.