Welcome to the web log page which will keep you up to date with your adopted otters.  Log in to our OTTERCAM to see what the cubs are up to!

 

 

 

OK we know it is not an otter but we thought you would like to see one of our recent additions.  This tawny owlet was found in the middle of the road at Inverinate.  Owlets can climb back up to the nest but unfortunately the finder did not know where the nest was and it was too dangerous to leave it on the roadside, so he brought it to us.  He is feathering up well and will go back to the wild when ready.

 

 

Since April we have had virtually no rain and so for the last six weeks we have been carrying water up to temporary plastic pools in the otter pens - one advantage of this is it does help to keep you fit!!  Well last night we had the first substantial rain and there is now a little water in the pools.  Hopefully this does not mean the end of our summer but it will be nice not to have to carry the water!

29 April 2008

All Change!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day for moving the otters around.  Tay and Pebbles have grown a lot and were ready to go to the croft pens.  So we used our new otter capture box which worked a treat!  In went Pebbles no problem and Tay went into another box and then up to the croft.  Pebbles had a good look around the grassy enclosure while Tay quickly tucked into the fish!

Thanks to Brian Mattinson of The Highland Shed Company in Broadford (Tel 01471 820 271) for making the catching box for us.

Meantime, Crummock moved out into a nursery pen which gives him far more room and a pool.  He has doubled his weight since he arrived just over a month ago - mind you it is not surprising given the amount he eats!

Guinness and Tipple are in Ireland.  Instead of transferring them to the croft pens we took them over when we went to do the otter survey and they are now in a secluded enclosure where they will stay until release.  Pictures soon.

21 March 2008

New Arrival from Cumbria

  Crummock with SSPCA Officer Nadia at Dalwhinnie, on his way to IOSF

Another phone call at the weekend from our friend, John McMinn, meant that another cub was on the way.  Little Crummock had been found by Crummock Water in the Lake District and was taken to Jenny Holden of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.  She met up with the Scottish SPCA and eventually the little cub arrived on Skye.  He is doing well and is already enjoying his salmon.  He is very nocturnal and will only eat in the dark!

12 March 2008

Update

Yesterday we moved Tay and Pebbles out to a nursery pen and you can watch them through the Otter webcam.  They don't seem very keen on using their cosy basket of hay but have a warm "nest" of duvets and blankets in the corner instead.

Guinness and Tipple are in a bigger pen with natural vegetation and pool and they are enjoying the extra freedom.

29 February 2008

Tay and Pebbles

At long last Tay and Pebbles seem to have made friends!  A couple of days ago, Tay moved into the sleeping area but was still at the other end from Pebbles.  However, yesterday, the two of them were curled up under the blanket.  I'm sure there will still be squabbles over fish, which is normal, but it is good to see the two of them like this.

22 February 2008

Petty squabbles!

Tay and Pebbles are together but not exactly the best of friends.  Unlike the other cubs we have put together these two are trying to live separate lives in the same pen!  They don't fight which is good but they sleep well away from each other and squabble if one goes too close.  Hopefully they will come to appreciate each other more given time.

20 February 2008

Tay and Pebbles

Tay and Pebbles were introduced to each other yesterday afternoon, but weren't particularly impressed!  There was a bit of screeching at each other but not much, but they stayed in opposite corners and glowered at each other!  This morning they are still in their corners although they have obviously been around the rest of the pen during the night.  Hopefully they will get more "friendly" towards each other over the next few days.  You can watch what goes on through the Otter Webcam

18 February 2008

Update on Tay

Tay has come on so well over the last few days.  On Thursday he was still getting his pureed salmon soup via a syringe and not showing any interest in eating fish himself.  Then overnight he decided he fancied white fillet on his own and on Saturday he tucked into whole fish.  Yesterday he ate two huge whole fish so this is a remarkable development.

All being well we will be introducing him to Pebbles soon - we will keep you informed.

14 February 2008

Tay   

We have been having some wonderful weather over the last few days - sunny clear days and cold frosty nights.  So we decided to take Tay outside to explore - he is such a rogue that as soon as he was put on the grass he was off!  You can watch a bit of video of his first walk on YouTube.

6 February 2008

Another new arrival

On 22 January another new cub, Tay, arrived through the SSPCA, Middlebank Centre.  He had been found at Balbeggie, in Perthshire, and was a tiny little soul of 900g.  When he first came in he was quite poorly so he was kept in an incubator for a few days until he was well enough to be put into a cub unit. Fortunately he was a good feeder from the outset and now he is a healthy 1110g and very active.  He is not eating fish yet but has a delicious soup of pureed salmon and otter milk substitute!  You can see a video of him feeding on YouTube.

  Grace feeding Tay                              Tay just loving it

The rest of the cubs are all doing well which is great after all the trauma before Christmas.  On Saturday we had a lot of snow so we could see all the prints and slides they had made!

20 January 2008

Updates on new cubs

As you can imagine the Christmas and New Year period was very busy at the Centre with so many little mouths to feed.

Sadly though we lost two of our charges.  As we said before we put Rufus in with the two new cubs from Peebles, and at first he seemed to rally.  However, the upset did seem to hit him hard and a couple of days later he died.  It makes me wonder if he ever would have survived in the wild as if he could be so upset by a simple move from one warm place to another, how could he cope in nature.

Then to make matters worse the younger of the two Peebles cubs went downhill.  We noticed that he wasn't getting as much food as his sister was pushing him out, so at each feed we took her out to make sure he got his share.   But this wasn't enough and he too didn't make it.

People often ask if we are sad when we release otters and we always reply "Never".  The sad part comes when we lose cubs like these tiny two.  Rufus in particular won my heart - he was such a special otter so his loss was even greater.

Pebbles

On a positive note though, Pebbles, the female from Peebles is doing well now.  After losing her brother and her new companion, naturally she was very upset and she too went backwards.  She went off her food and only with a lot of coaxing and TLC did we manage to bring her back.  Now she is eating enthusiastically and you can see her in the webcam - we have given her a cuddly otter toy as a companion and she must like it as we find it moves around quite a bit!

The Irish pair, Guinness and Tipple, are together now.  The male, Guinness, also took a lot of encouragement to make him eat.  He was far too big to be on a bottle but refused to take food any other way.  Eventually he started eating pieces of salmon handed to him with tweezers, while Tipple waited to snap up any pieces that he dropped!  Then one morning, when they were being given a fresh bowl of water a bit was spilled by him and he sniffed at it and lapped it.   The bowl was put down and he drank - hooray! After that he started eating fish fillet and now the two of them are eating whole fish.  They have now been moved out to a nursery pen and you can also see them in the webcam

.Guinness                             Guinness & Tipple(at the back)                       Tipple

Yesterday when I went in to feed he came out, grabbed a fish and went behind the basket to eat it.  She wouldn't come out to get one herself but tried to "mug" him for his!  He was having none of it so there was a great tug of war between them! 

 

20 December 2007

Otters everywhere!!

There seem to be otters everywhere at the moment!  As we said we received two new cubs from Northern Ireland just over a week ago and then on Monday we picked up two more which had been found at Peebles and taken to the SSPCA Wildlife Unit at Middlebank.  They were lapping milk when they arrived and now they are on a delicious soup of milk and pureed fish!

Because of this Rufus had to be moved out of the cub pen and into a bigger pen but he was really miserable there so we made the unusual decision to introduce him to other cubs early.  With the arrival of the Peebles twins it was decided to keep the Irish two together and then have the three Scottish ones together as the Irish ones will have to go back to Ireland for release.

As Rufus was so sad we decided to introduce him to the Peebles ones and as you can see from the webcam they are getting on very well even though Rufus is quite a bit bigger.  Hopefully he will teach them to eat fish soon.

The two Irish ones will be introduced to each other soon and again we hope the bigger female will teach the younger male to eat too.  At the moment he is having the milk/fish soup but he won't lap it and has to get it from a syringe!  He was on a bottle but as he has such sharp teeth he was destroying the teat at every feed and losing half of the food!  He is certainly well equipped to eat fish but probably likes the "security" of being fed.

10 December 2007

Two New Pals for Rufus

Two new cubs arrived last night from Northern Ireland.  It was decided to move them here rather than down to the sanctuary Southern Ireland as the journey was just as long and also we felt Rufus needed company.  The two cubs will be kept in isolation for two weeks to make sure they have nothing which can be passed on and then they will be introduced to Rufus.

In the meantime, Rufus is eating very well and putting on weight.

5 December 2007

Rufus is coming along well and if you have been watching him on the webcam, you will have noticed how much he is growing.  Here's a photo of him to show you why he came to have his name                                             

 

 

 

 

22 November 2007

              Rufus with Grace                    Rufus tucking into his salmon!

13 November 2007

Yesterday we received a new otter cub from Poolewe.  It is a young male of about 8 weeks and we have called him Rufus.  At the moment he is on milk and he loves his bottle.  Pictures will follow. 

30 October 2007

ELIZA:

Here is a photo of Eliza's release back in Cumbria.  John McMinn had brought her up to Skye last year and was keen to help with her release.  If you look carefully you can just make out a brown shape jumping off the bank into the water - that is Eliza!

27 October 2007

SORRY!

We are really sorry that it has been such a long time since this page was updated.  We have had a lot of problems with the company handling our webserver so that we could not access it.  We have now changed companies so hopefully there will be no further problems.

So what has been happening in the past weeks.

As I write, Eliza is travelling down to Cumbria to be released.  She is now a strong adult female who is very wary of people, which will be very important once she is in the wild.  Hopefully we will have photos to add to the site next week.

Maverick is also in the wild.  He was released a short while ago but still comes back sometimes for fish. 

Jeannie and Catkin have been transferred to one of the croft pens, where they are enjoying their freedom in the larger wild area.  They seem to use their pool a lot and have made many muddy slides into it!

And we have two new cubs, Ceud and Rowan.  Ceud was our 100^th otter and "Ceud" is the Gaelic word for otter.  She was found in Perthshire and transferred here in September. 

Rowan came from Oban. He had been hit by a car and was taken to the Sea Life Centre at Barcaldine.  He was paralysed but with the great care of the staff there he recovered enough to be moved to Skye and now there are no signs of his accident.

The two cubs were introduced to each other and there was a lot of yelling from Ceud, who obviously objected to her new pen-mate, although she did not actually touch him.  Eventually she accepted him and now they curl up to sleep together.  Mind you, although he is smaller it is Rowan who pinches the fish from Ceud!  They have now been transferred to a nursery pen and you can watch them through the webcam.  At the moment they hide a lot under a blanket but you may spot them coming out for fish.

Rowan (the wee one) and Ceud getting to know each other 

20 July 2007

Maverick moved to croft pens

For all Maverick adoptee's, he has been moved to our lovely croft pens . he will stay for about six months before release back to the wild.

                                    

Going to new home                                                                      Maverick in new home

29 May 2007

NAUGHTY ELIZA!

I have to share with you a funny experience with Eliza yesterday.  I was up feeding her in the croft pen and as it has been so dry recently we have to give her drinking water in a bowl, as there isn't much water in her pool.  I had taken the lid off the fish bucket and put it on the ground near her sleeping box while I put the fish in her feeding pipe.  I turned round and she had grabbed the lid and was trying desperately to take it back in the box before I saw her!  All I could see was this lid trying to get through the entrance with no visible otter but it was too big and just kept banging against the door! 

She realised she wasn't going to win with that so dropped it and shot out and grabbed the water bottle!  Fortunately that too wouldn't go through the hole so she ended up frustrated and without anything!

26 April 2007

Catkin and Jeannie have been moved together to an outside nursery pen.  Here are some pictures.

Jeannie

Jeannie and Catkin playing together

25 April 2007

ELIZA MOVES TO CROFT PEN

Today we moved Eliza to one of the croft pens.  It was a lovely day and she now has a grassy pen with her own pool.  It is a lot quieter and so she can enjoy the peace there.

 

9 April 2007

CUB UPDATE

Our two newest cubs continue to do well and all being well we hope to introduce them to each other later this week.  Although they are both pretty fiery we hope that they will be good company for each other. 

5 April 2007

ANOTHER CUB!

Cubs seem to be coming in so quickly at the moment.

Last week we had a call about two cubs - one from Perthshire and one from near Aberdeen airport.  The Perthshire cub was taken to the SSPCA Middlebank wildlife hospital but sadly died.  However the Aberdeen one is thriving.

We met Sally Brain, wife of wildlife vet Laurence Brain, on Monday to meet our new charge, another female.  She was really not happy when being transferred from her carrying box to her cub pen, but had calmed down a bit later that evening.  She is eating well but still is very adamant that she WILL NOT be disturbed.  Photos will follow

Meanwhile the other cub from the Aberdeen area is also doing well.  She has a tremendous appetite and still has her fiery character.  We have named her Jeannie, after a supporter of ours who died recently.  Our Jean was also a very spirited lady but her namesake has a lot to live up to!

19 March 2007

A NEW ARRIVAL

On Friday, Chief Inspector John Carle of the SSPCA brought us a new cub from the Aberdeen area.  Two cubs had been found but unfortunately the smaller of the two did not survive.  This one is another feisty female and is eating well.  She is in the indoor cub pen and you can see her through the webcam .  Photos will follow.

14 March 2007

ELIZA

Eliza has continued to do well and so we decided to put her back into the nursery pen with extra bedding and carpet on the floor to ensure that she keeps warm, especially as she won't have the body heat from Sniffer.  It is always a nervous time when cubs are moved outside but after what happened to Sniffer we are even more cautious and anxious.

12 March 2007

ELIZA

Eliza is doing well.  The loss of Sniffer obviously upset her at first and we were worried that she would lose interest in food - he had been a great help to her in starting to take solid food in the first place.  However she has continued to eat well but has become even more reclusive and grumpy when disturbed.

9 March 2007

SNIFFER

We had a tragedy at the weekend.  When we went to feed Sniffer and Eliza we found Sniffer dead.  It was a complete shock as both the cubs had been doing so well.  We quickly took Eliza back into the hospital to keep her under observation.

A post mortem examination has revealed that Sniffer died of pneumonia but we don't know how he got it as he had warm hay and blankets as bedding.  Samples have been sent for further examination which may reveal the cause.

OTTER UPDATES

So far we have heard nothing more from SMO so hopefully all is going well with her.

Lelly and Tweed are so private on the croft.  Both are looking very well and Tweed is a big strong male.  Lelly is still quite delicate but has grown considerably since the early days when she was so petite!  Sometimes we are lucky enough to see them running about in their enclosure from one of the windows at the office - little do they know they have been spotted!

The three youngsters are thriving.  To be honest, I find Eliza and Sniffer hysterical!  They are so like little children with their squabbling.  When they are fed one will grab a fish and the other will chase after it squeaking and yelling to be given some.  Only when it doesn't succeed in prising away the precious fish will it go back to take one of the others which has been left!

Our newest arrival has been named Maverick.  He is an otter with "attitude" and was given this name by a group of youngsters from Leicestershire - the Teen Rangers.

All three of the cubs are now in the nursery pens.  Unfortunately Maverick is just that bit too small to be put in with Eliza and Sniffer but they are next door to each other and we hear them squeaking at each other through the fencing, so he still has otter company.

14 February 2007

VALENTINE'S DAY PRESENT!

What better present can you have for Valentine's Day than to release an otter back to the wild! 

SMO, our otter from the Gaelic College, had recovered well and was now desperate to be back where she belonged.  When she first came in we thought we would have to keep her for some time but her wounds had healed and we decided that it would be better for her to be free quickly.

The weather was gorgeous - sunny, warm and calm.  So we took her back down to Sleat.  We didn't take her right back to the College as if she had already been involved in a fight there it would be pointless to put her back for another scrap - this time she might not be so lucky!  So we went to another excellent locality on the peninsula and released her there.

She had no hesitation in coming out of the box and running into the shoreline bushes so that she could hide until she was sure there was no-one around.  Good luck SMO.

31 January 2007

Yet another new otter cub at the sanctuary, this young male about 12 weeks old came from Bonnybridge, Scotland.

This means our sanctuary has 6 otters the most we have had at one time for many years.  Fish for these is getting harder to get and we are having to pay more, if you can make a donation to our sanctuary please

22 January 2007

OTTER RESCUED FROM GAELIC COLLEGE

Yesterday afternoon we had a call from the Gaelic College, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, in Sleat on Skye.  Apparently an otter had gone into the workshop there and appeared to have a head injury.

We went straight down and what a co-operative otter!  We were afraid it was going to be a really difficult job of trying to catch it amongst all the bits and pieces in the workshop but no it had curled up in the collecting box for a lawn mower!  It was sound asleep so we just covered the entrance to the box, moved it next to the transporting box, removed the cover and the otter walked into the box!

It wasn't so happy on the journey back and was desperately trying to escape the box, but it was transferred into the heated stone byre in a nursery pen and left to calm down with some fish.

The injury is the result of fighting but it doesn't look too serious, although we don't know if there are any hidden injuries.  But it is on a course of antibiotics and hopefully will be released in due course.  It is a juvenile (about 10 months) so will probably be with us for a couple of months.

15 January 2007

SNIFFER

Here is a picture taken of Sniffer just before Christmas when he was still on his own.  We will shortly be able to show you pictures of the two of them together and you will see how they have grown!

 

 

8 January 2007

HUNGRY OTTERS

Those of you who have been watching our two young otter cubs on the webcam will have seen how active they are and how quickly they are growing.  After the initial trials of Eliza learning to feed, the two of them have developed very healthy appetites and have given up their expensive taste for trout and salmon.  As soon as their fish fillet is put into their bowl the two of them run enthusiastically to it and sometimes have a little squabble over who gets the first bit!  This is all normal behaviour as in the wild cubs will squabble and learn from each other, as Eliza learnt to feed after watching Sniffer.

NEW CUBS DOING WELL

Our new arrivals are doing very well.  As they were not related they were kept in quarantine for two weeks to prevent the possibility of spreading any infection.  The male, Sniffer, took to eating very readily and quickly progressed from trout to salmon with a bit of white fish.  The female, Eliza, was far more picky.  Initially she would take some trout but would not touch the salmon.  Then she went off the fish but loved her bottle of special "otter" milk.  Then she went off that too but she was still so healthy.

We therefore felt that the feeding problem was more of an emotional thing than a medical problem and so the two were introduced.  At first they were all over each other but then they had a minor falling out and she retreated to her bed.  He lay in the other part of the cub unit and sulked! But by the evening he had managed to weedle himself back into favour and was tucked up with her in the sleeping quarters.

The next day, neither were enthusiastic on food, but the following day he was back into his food.  She watched him for a bit and then lo and behold she too tucked into her trout.  Now they are both feeding well and are being weaned off the salmon and onto white fish fillet.

 

Eliza enjoying her bottle!

 

18 December 2006 Two new otter cubs from England

15 December 2006

Sadly we have to tell you that the otter from Kingussie died.  She seemed to be showing signs of recovery but then suddenly took a turn for the worse and died overnight.  We have been in touch with Lisa and Stewart Kelly, who found her and they have reported that another dead otter from almost the same place earlier in the year.  So we will be following this up and hopefully getting mitigation measures installed at the site to prevent further needless deaths.

On a positive note we had a call yesterday to say that the young cub from Cumbria is doing well and he is to be transferred to Skye on Saturday.  We will tell you more and hopefully have pictures next week.

12 December 2006

New otter cub on the way to our sanctuary

28 November 2006

Yesterday we had a call from the SSPCA in Inverness about an otter which had been found at Kingussie.  The otter, an adult female, had been hit by a car and was now at the vets.  Fortunately x-rays revealed no broken bones but she was very listless.

We met Andy Brown, of the SSPCA, at Glenmoriston and picked up the otter to bring her back to Skye.  She is now in intensive care but we are pleased to say that she is eating.  She seems to have partial paralysis as a result of the knock but we are hopeful that she will recover.

 

We will keep you in touch.

 

Meanwhile Lelly and Tweed continue to grow well and they will soon be moved to the croft pens.  Any of you who have been watching Planet Earth will have seen the Arctic fox trying to grab more and more chicks in its mouth.  Well our two must have been watching too as the fish we have just now are small and they too try to grab as many as they can and run off into a corner to eat them - hilarious to watch!

 

New otter recovering slowly

19 September 2006

SITH IS FREE!

Yesterday we released Sith back to the wild.  He was now a big strong male otter and desperate to be free so we set off early in the morning to take him back.  It was a lovely morning with sun and calm seas - perfect.  He behaved perfectly and quickly took to the water so we retreated and left him to explore.

The only problem we had was that the camera didn't work so we couldn't get any photos - sorry.

31 August 2006

VISITORS!

Our two youngsters, Lelly and Tweed, have been making a lot of noise for the last couple of days.  Usually they are pretty quiet but they have been constantly squeaking and yelling.  Spying on them from a distance we could see Tweed standing with his front paws on the fence looking towards the burn which runs down beside their enclosure.  We also heard another otter call from that direction so can only assume that a visiting wild otter has been calling in to check what is going on.  We have yet to see the visitor but it is good for the cubs to get even this sort of interaction with a wild otter.

24 August 2006

BELATED UPDATES!

Sorry for the lack of updates - the summer seems to have been so busy.

So what has happened since June.  Sadly Caroline lost the tiny cubs.  One survived for three weeks but eventually died of intestinal torsion.

Our own cubs are doing very well.  Sith is almost ready for release.  He is now on the croft and becoming very independent.  Once they arrive in one of the croft pens we give them a "starter kit" of hay for bedding and then they have to get on with it.  Now that it is cooler we have noticed that Sith has started to drag grass and rushes into his sleeping box, which is a good sign.  He is also catching frogs himself, so soon he will go back to the wild.

Some of you may have been watching Lelly and Tweed on the OTTER WEBCAM.  Before this was installed we could only see what they were up to when we went to the pen - but of course the mere fact that we were there made them behave totally differently.  It is great to be able to see their behaviour when we aren't around - they are so active.  They use the outside pool a lot, especially in the evening and have a great time chasing each other in the water - we have to spy on this hiding behind a tree!

Last week, Paul had to go to Inverewe for the night, and he was barely out of the door in the afternoon when there was a call about an otter in Staffin.  For those who don't know Staffin, it is about 40 miles from us at the other end of the island.  A report had come in of an otter on the beach there which seemed to be very lethargic.  The trouble with these situations is that by the time we could get there the otter would be long gone. 

So I phoned a friend, Sylvia, who lives in Staffin and keeps an eye on the local otters.  She went straight down and phoned to say that it looked as if it had been in a fight but it had gone into the water.  There is obviously no way you can catch an otter in water so we thought the best thing we could do was try to trap it when it came back on to land.

Sylvia and another friend, Mandy, spent the rest of that day and the following day watching for the otter again.  Sylvia knows the otters there well, having watched a female and her two large cubs over the summer, so she was worried it might be one of the cubs, but on the second day they spotted three separate otters all acting perfectly normally and in good condition.

The "injured" otter has not been seen since.  We do not know if it has moved on, or possibly if it had been in a fight very recently and basically needed some peace to recover.  Maybe a quiet night and a good meal was all that was needed and by the following day it was back to normal.  We can only hope this was the case.

12 June 2006

FEMALE OTTER WITH NEWBORN CUBS

Last week we received a phone call from Caroline Gould at Vale Wildlife Rescue, asking for some advice.  A female otter had been brought in after a road accident and it turned out that she was pregnant!  Four cubs had been seen on the x-ray but no-one could tell if they were alive or not.  A couple of days later she gave birth to four LIVE cubs!

Unfortunately the mother rejected all of the cubs and even crushed one, so Caroline had to remove them and start the long and hard process of hand rearing.  Sadly another one has since died but Caroline is now caring for the remaining two, both female, giving round the clock milk feeds.  The biggest of the two has doubled her birth weight although she is the one that was almost dead when removed from her mum. The smaller one went through a couple of days when they thought they were going to lose her. She is on two different antibiotics at the moment and is now much stronger and hopefully over the worst.

This is an incredibly difficult task.  The cubs did not receive any otter colostrum, although they were given a substitute but it is still very early days for these little animals.

If you would like to follow the progress of these cubs you can see more photos at the website of  Vale Wildlife Rescue.  They will soon have a webcam on them too.

23 May 2006

PERCY, LELLY AND TWEED

Sadly we have to tell you that the snared otter, who somehow got the name Percy, died on Sunday 14 May.  His wounds were simply too much to overcome.

We have been in touch with our local Police Wildlife Liaison Officer, PC Tom Owen, who has been very helpful - in fact he is coming back to see us tonight.  We have also contacted Scottish Natural Heritage as this is the 6th otter which we know has been caught in a snare in five years - how many more have been caught and died a horrible death without being found.

We are also trying to publicise the problem to make people more aware of how awful these things are - no animal should be made to suffer like this.  We would like anyone who plans to set a snare to see exactly what we have seen and then maybe they would think twice.

On a positive note, our two cubs are thriving and the female has been called Lelly and the male Tweed.  Tweed came from the River Tweed (original name eh?!) but Lelly got her name from one of our supporters called Lesley, whose nickname was Lelly.  Sadly, Lesley died a short while ago and her fiance, Mike, asked if we could name an otter after her as she was so passionate for these animals.

When I wrote to tell Mike how the two cubs had been put together I told him how fiery she is but equally how protective she is of Tweed, even though he is quite a bit bigger than her.  Mike replied that it was just like his Lesley - fiery but caring passionately for the ones she loved. Lesley's love of otters began several years ago after a trip to a local animal park - when she saw the otters she was mesmerised by the "funny, cheeky, playful little creatures".  We are sure that our Lelly will live up to these qualities!

The photos below were taken before the two cubs were introduced to each other a few days ago.

They are now in a nursery pen which has a small pool and they are devoted to each other.  You can watch them NOW in their sleeping quarters by clicking on to our WEBCAM

9 May 2006

After the wonderful experience of releasing Thistle yesterday, we had a tragic case this morning.  We were called for an injured otter in Broadford and it turned out that it had a snare around its neck.  We managed to catch it and take it to the vet but its wounds are extremely serious.  The vet has removed the snare and dressed the wound and now the otter is being cared for in our hospital.

It is barbaric to see an animal like this - yes we care for otters of course, but no animal should be made to suffer in this way.

We are not putting photos here as they are really terrible but if you wish to see them CLICK HERE

We would ask you to email or write to the organisation below telling them that snares should be banned.  They are cruel for all animals and also target any species and not just the one they where set for.

PAW Secretariat, Zone 1/14, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6EB.

or email: paw.secretariat@defra.gsi.gov.uk

8 May 2006

Today was a beautiful morning - not just because the sun was shining and it was a lovely spring day.  But because today Thistle went back to the wild.

Thistle had come to us last July from near Callander as a small cub but now he had grown into a very strong and large male adult otter.  It was time to go.

To be honest he had always been a bit awkward, getting into places he shouldn't and pulling things about in his pen.  So we were prepared for him to be equally awkward when we wanted to catch him.  But today was different.  We put the large trap which was to be his release box into his pen and within half an hour he was in!

Thistle ready to go back to the wild

As you can see his release site was a beautiful highland river with plenty of bankside trees and places to hide - perfect.  And just to prove it was perfect a fish leapt in the river as we waited for him to venture out of the open door - dinner was waiting!

                                                                                                                                                    Thistle's new home

Eventually he left the box and dropped into the river, swirling and diving in the waters.  It was a beautiful sight - a wild otter released back to his home.

Freedom!!

21 April 2006

We now have two new cubs both from the Scottish Borders. 

The first is a young female which was taken to the South of Scotland Wildlife Hospital and was then transferred to a vet friend of ours in Grampian, Laurence Brain.  She had been there for a week until he was happy for her to travel on to us and so we met up with the SSPCA ambulance driver at Inverness to pick her up.

She is another tiny one - weighing only 660g on arrival!  I don't know why many of the cubs this year have been so small - in the past they have usually come in weighing just about 1kg but since Christmas we have had three very small ones.

Initially she was taking milk and she was obviously quite stressed by all the upheaval she has had in her short life.  She then went on to a lovely thick soup of pureed trout and lectade!  Now she is eating just fish fillet and she is a healthy 800g +.

The second cub is a fiery male from the River Tweed.  He was taken to the SSCPA wildlife hospital at Middlebank but was in a very poor condition.  There were doubts whether he would make it as he had an infection and needed to be on a drip.  However, thanks to the care given by Sandra Bonar and her staff at the hospital, he survived and we met at Dalwhinnie to collect him. 

He is quite a bit bigger than the female - 1.1kg and extremely wild!

Hey - hands off my fish!

We'll keep you up to date with progress of these two cubs.
 

HARRIS OTTER

We have heard that Scottish Natural Heritage are willing to pay for the pollutant analysis for the cub from Harris.  This is good news as if there is a pollution problem causing such deformities we must find out now.  We will keep you informed of the results.

Join the Mailing List

Enter your name and email address below:

Name:
Email:
Subscribe  Unsubscribe 

14 April 2006

HARRIS OTTER

We received the full post mortem results from the Harris otter today and it came with the following comments:

 "It is worth noting this cub had a number of unusual features.  The nipples were quite remarkably prominent for such a young animal and the uterus was also much larger than would be expected in a cub.  In addition, the thymus was regressed.  I feel it unlikely to have regressed in 48 hours that the cub was ill.  A possible explanation for both these observations is that the cub has been exposed to high levels of halogenated compounds such and PCB's or organochlorines."

IOSF has been campaigning for eight years to have full post mortems and toxicology carried out in Scotland but neither the Scottish Executive or Scottish Natural Heritage will fund this.  We are contacting them again to push for this as it is a statutory requirement under the EU Habitats Directive and is carried out in all other EU countries.

12 April 2006

HARRIS OTTER

It has been a very bad few weeks here and the last thing was when we lost the otter from Harris.  As you will have read, she was introduced to Heather and they were brilliant - just like normal sibling cubs climbing all over each other and playing.

However, after just a few days she developed ulcers in her eyes.  We have had this before so were not unduly worried as it has always cleared up with treatment.  She was seen by the vet who prescribed eye drops four times a day and a course of antibiotics to be put in her food.  So we had to take her away from her new friend so that she could be treated.

At first we found the eye drops were not working but then we realised that as soon as they had been put in she would go into her water bowl and wash them out!  So we took her bowl out immediately after treatment and left it a while so that the drops would soak in.  This seemed to be working but then suddenly one morning we found her dead.

This was a real shock as she had been so active and was eating well.  We sent her for a post mortem examination and it turned out she had hepatitis.  This was a real worry as it can be contagious and so there was concern for Heather too -  since then we have been watching her like a hawk!

This all happened about three weeks ago and we are pleased to say that Heather is showing no signs of eye trouble or any other problems - in fact she is now in an outdoor cub pen and is doing very well.  She is eating whole fish and is certainly not pleased when I go in to feed and check her.

We always know that orphans are vulnerable but once they are eating as well as she was we feel the worst stage is hopefully over.  This case will certainly make us far more aware when dealing with eye problems in the future.

31 March 2006

HONEY

You will all be very sad to hear that our Honey has died.  She had broken two of her canines and so needed dental work done.  She was taken to a specialist who operated but after he had completed the work she wouldn't come out of the anaesthetic, and as he tried to revive her she arrested.

A post mortem was carried out and it appears she had some enlargement of the heart - as yet we don't know the cause of this.

It was so sad and our friends who had been caring for her are devastated.  She had become one of the family and so enjoyed her personally built enclosure.

Honey should never have been in captivity, even though she received the very best care and had wonderful facilities.  The person who tamed her prevented her from realising the magic of being a wild otter and we will continue to work to try and prevent this from happening again.

Thanks to all who supported and cared for Honey.

24 March 2006

ALL CHANGE!

On Tuesday we moved some of our otters into new pens.  Sith has now moved into a bigger, more open pen with a natural pool and a wooden sleeping box.  Heather has now moved outside and is in a nursery pen with a small pool.  Both otters have taken well to their new places and you can see Sith coming out to explore his new pen below.

10 March 2006

 THE TWO CUBS

Unfortunately we have had to separate the two cubs again.  They were getting on really well but the one from Harris has developed an ulcer in both eyes.  She has been to the vet and needs eye drops four times a day and antibiotics so it is better to keep her separately while she is being treated.  Hopefully this will be sorted soon and then they can be reunited.

7 March 2006

GOOD NEWS

You will be pleased to hear that yesterday Heather and our Harris otter have now been put in together.  They were introduced very carefully and after only about 5 seconds of squeaking at each other there was a lot of running about all over each other - just like normal sibling cubs.  This went on for about 20 minutes as they explored each other and enjoyed proper otter company.  Already they are curling up together to sleep and whenever we look in they hug together closer for safety!  Photos will follow. 

SAD NEWS

We are so sorry to tell you that the tiny cub we received from the north of Skye died. She had put up such a fight but she was such a tiny thing.  At first she was feeding really well and enjoyed her little pieces of trout, but then she seemed to lose interest.  So she was treated by the vet and responded well, so that she was soon back on otter milk substitute.  However, she didn't put on weight and after a few days she lost interest in food again so went back to the vet.  Again she seemed to respond to the treatment but we found her dead in the morning.

It is so sad as she was such a wonderful little character and she seemed so active whenever she was fed and she was certainly very vocal!

We have sent her for a post mortem examination to see if we can establish why she didn't seem able to put on weight in spite of her appetite.  We will keep you informed.

3 March 2006

HARRIS OTTER

Here is another picture of our little otter from Harris - cute isn't she!

24 February 2006

AN OTTER CUB FROM HARRIS 

On Saturday afternoon we received a phone call from the Isle of Harris from someone who had found a young otter cub on the beach.  He had watched and waited to see if the mother returned but nothing the cub just carried on crying on the shore. 

Collecting the otter from the Isle of Harris

So he picked it up and phoned us.  The cub appeared to be healthy and as it was too late for a ferry to bring it over to us, we gave him instructions on how to look after it until the next boat on Monday.
So on Monday, we took a cruise over the Minch to Harris.  It was an absolutely perfect day cold, crisp and sunny so it made a welcome change to the computer! 

We had just 15 minutes to meet up and collect the cub before the boat returned to Skye.  The return journey was even better and as the sun went down behind the Skye hills, we landed at Uig to drive back to Broadford with our new charge. 

The new cub

AND YET ANOTHER CUB 

Yesterday (Thursday) morning we received a call about two cubs near Portree.  Some people had been tidying their garden and were removing a large pile of branches and garden waste when they discovered them.

                                                                                            The log pile in which the cub was found

They quickly retreated and phoned us for advice and we told them to watch quietly for the mother to check that she came back for them.

 Later that afternoon we had another call to say that one of the cubs was out on the grass lying with its head down.  This was obviously not good so we immediately set off up north. 

When we arrived the cub had gone back amongst the branches but we could see its tiny face looking out.  We picked it up and it was clearly cold, so we wrapped it in a blanket and looked for the second one.
There was no sign of it and we felt it was important to get this one back for treatment as quickly as possible so we left our new friends to search for the other cub. 

Today they phoned to say that so far they have found nothing.  Obviously we dont know what has happened to it - maybe it wandered off and the mother did find it but she clearly had not come back for the one we now have. 

23 February 2006

UPDATE ON THE NEW OTTER

Our new little otter, which is a female, is doing very well.  She was a bit reluctant to eat at first, which is common in new arrivals.  They have undergone a lot of stress with losing their mother and then finding themselves in strange surroundings, so they often go backwards for a little while.

However, pieces of nice fresh trout have tempted her and she is tucking in with a tremendous appetite.

We'll keep you posted with more news and photos will follow

JABBER JABBER

Some of you will remember our friend Shelanne from Canada, who reared several river otters which were successfully released in March 2005.  Today, I received an email from her saying that she believes she has seen one of her otters, a female otter called Jabber Jabber.  Not far from the release site surfers are encountering an otter which seems to like their surf board leashes, and as Jabber Jabber did like to play with various "toys" it could well be her.

21 February 2006

NEW OTTER

What a beautiful day for a cruise across the Minch -  we left Uig yesterday at 2pm and sailed across to Tarbert.  Arriving at 3.45 we had just 10 minutes to collect the cub and re-board the Hebrides.  The cub was in good condition and alert so all looked good, and we waved goodbye and re-embarked.  The sail back was even better.  The Minch is often renowned for being rough, but yesterday it was a millpond and the sunset over the hills of Skye was magical.

We have taken photos and these will be posted with more information on the cub in the next few days.

20 February 2006

ANOTHER OTTER

This afternoon we are heading over to the Isle of Harris to pick up another cub.  This one was found on Saturday on the shore near Tarbert and has been cared for over the weekend until the next ferry today.  Watch this space!

HEATHER

The little otter below has now been named - she is Heather - there is a lot of it around Inverewe!  She is doing very well.  When she came in she was just over 700g but now she is a hefty 1.6kg!

19 January 2006

NEW OTTER

Here is one of the first photos of our newest otter.  She has taken a little while to settle in and has good feeding days and days when she doesn't seem so hungry.  Today she is hungry!

SITH

Sith has been moved out into one of the nursery pens - I managed to take this photo when he was hiding behind his sleeping box!

THISTLE

This is Thistle in his sleeping box in one of the croft pens.  As you can see he has been busy collecting grass to add to his hay bedding.

OTTIGA'S RELEASE

Ottiga was released last autumn and here is a picture of him on his way to his release site.

SASSY

Since her release on the isle of Mull last autumn, Sassy has been spotted fishing regularly and also had a close encounter with a heron and a grey seal - she was wise enough to back off from the grey seal, as although they don't regularly go for otters, there have been cases where a grey seal has attacked an otter.

17 January 2006

NEW OTTER

A new little otter came into the Sanctuary on Friday 6 January 2006.  She had been found at Inverewe Gardens and had been alone for at least two days.  The Ranger, Rob Dewar, met us at Strathcarron to transfer her to the hospital.

Photos available soon.

SITH

Sith (Gaelic for "peace" and pronounced "Sheee") was found on the mainland at the end of November.  He was very cold but soon recovered once he began to warm up

and was given some liquids.  He has a tremendous appetite and had reached 2.2kg on 5 January 2006

Sith soon after his arrival

THISTLE

Thistle came to us from Callander in Perthshire.  How did he get his name?  Those of you who like football may be able to guess!  We asked various people for suggestions and in the end Katy O'Brien from Inverness suggested Thistle.    And her reason?  He came from Callander so he could be called Cally, but we had already had a cub called Cally, so as Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club are nicknamed Caley Thistle, Thistle was the obvious choice!

      Thistle enjoying a walk on the grass     

    If you would like to adopt one of the otters at IOSF.