A bevy of otters

Guess what I saw last week? Yep, otters. Not one, or two (or even three) but four of the critters!

Right in front of my very self in the river and in the marina, I watched them feeding on fish (not pike of course!) and playing in the water. This is unprecedented as far as I know - meaning that Waveney River Centre is an excellent place to see this most enigmatic of river mammal.

My flippers were too slippery for me to get a picture (and my slippers too flippery), but they looked just like this stock picture that I found on tinterweb.

Five facts you otter know:

1. The European otter (Lutra Lutra)  is part of the family Mustelidae which also includes weasels, polecats, badgers and wolverines
2. Otters were almost extinct in the UK by the 1970s - mostly due to toxic pesticides and hunting
3. Otters must eat 15% of their body weight a day to survive.
4. Tarka The Otter was voted 98th in Channel 4's poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films
5. Illegal setting of crayfish traps can kill otters, so please don't do that

Thank you to our intrepid wildlife expert Carl Chapman for pointing them out to me. You can find out more about otters here.