Life span: Up to 10 years.

Statistics: Head and body length: 55-110cm, Weight: 5-12kg.

Habitat: In the British Isles, otters are found in fresh and salt water, although coastal otters like those in Scotland and the Shetlands need access to freshwater pools to clean their insulating fur.

Behaviour: Otters are solitary and are active at dusk and during the night. Although they occasionally come out in the day, they usually rest in a burrow in the river bank called a holt.

Reproduction: Otters breed all year round, with a gestation period of about 63 days, after which two or three cubs are born. These are blind at birth and are covered in a dark or grey downy fur, finally opening their eyes after 35 days.

The cubs will remain inside the holt, in a nest of straw or weeds for a further couple of weeks, before venturing out into the open with their mother. The cubs are weaned after three to four months and reach sexual maturity after two to three years.

Diet: Apart from fish, otters also feed on crustaceans, water birds, frogs and voles. They can use their whiskers as sensing organs underwater, to monitor the movements of prey.

Otters are one of the most playful animals, often appearing to take childlike enjoyment in sliding around on muddy banks or in snow.

They have become extinct in much of their range, with many populations still diminishing. They are strictly protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and cannot be killed, kept or sold without a licence.

Otters stay with their mothers for about a year, learning to swim, hunt and be independent.
Some catastrophe must have happened to her, as they are attentive mothers and do not leave their cubs alone.

He was very wild and bitey and was left to settle in a quiet shed with a heat lamp and fresh whole trout.

The rehabilitation of an otter cub needs specialist care. A pond to swim in, a quiet kennel to hide in, all inside an enclosed paddock. I do not have these facilities, although I wish that I had.
As usual with wildlife rehabilitators I know who has.

So after 5 days stabilization, the cub and I travelled up to meet Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue in Gretna Green. The cub was transferred and taken up to Beith where he is to be reared. Hessilhead have a wonderful reputation for rearing otter wild and ready for the wild. Hopefully he will be returned in a year to be released on the River Nidd and home.