Page 64 - BBC Knowledge - October 2017 IN

WILDLIFE
Otters

LAKE OF

GIANTS

In the Peruvian Amazon, a family of giant otters fends off hundreds
of caiman to dominate a lake. Only through teamwork and guile can
they beat their reptilian rivals, says PHILIPPA FORRESTER

Photos by CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

T’S 4.30am, dark and hot, on a late 2.5m-long bulk. For now, the reptile exits stage
November morning. Needles of rain left among the overhanging bankside vegetation
are bouncing off black water and a tree as the lake’s resident ‘mob’ appears centre stage.
floats by. But wildlife cameraman Charlie
Hamilton James has only one thing on OTTER OBSESSION
Ihis mind as his small boat putters across Here, at last, is the family that Charlie has waited
the fast-flowing River Manu in the Peruvian so long to see again: a boisterous gang of giant
Amazon. Five days after leaving England, he otters, each up to 1.8m long, with sleek bodies,
has reached his destination – a wooden raft in seal-like heads and huge webbed feet. They dive,
the middle of a large oxbow lake called Cocha leap and raise their heads high above the surface,
Salvador. peering curiously to see who is on their lake.
As grey light seeps across the sky, the expanse of As Charlie’s camera whirrs into action,
water on which Charlie is floating becomes distinct he can’t help smiling. He has been obsessed
from the forested banks. The humidity starts rising with otters for most of his life, and, as his wife
sharply. Manu National Park, the most biodiverse and fellow film-maker, I have shared a decade
place on Earth, begins to wake up. of this passion. The European otter that
A black caiman cruises silently past, eyes level Charlie and I have got to know so well
with the surface, barely visible bumps atop long- is playful, inquisitive and supremely adapted
toothed jaws. Macaws stir and call, and rainforest to an aquatic life – but that’s where any
insects chirp and hum – noises Charlie has not similarity with its Amazonian cousin ends.
heard for 10 years. He is still waiting for the The otter that lives along rivers and coasts is
sounds that he travelled all this way for. usually secretive and, on the whole, solitary and
Suddenly, the still air erupts into whistles, nocturnal – behaviour that is a world away from
sliding-scale squeals and energetic banter. the complex sociality displayed by this group of
The caiman sinks, the water closing over the exuberant monsters. Europe’s otters seem modest
top of its head, leaving no trace of the animal’s by comparison – cute, even – whereas these

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