Page 68 - BBC Knowledge - October 2017 IN

WILDLIFE
Otters

Diablo (left) and his cohorts close
ranks. A mob defending its territory
is a daunting sight for a cameraman,
let alone an intruding giant otter

giant otter cubs don’t much like water. One cub in particular – Dali, Several times, Dali is unceremoniously dunked in the lake by
the smallest of the litter – hates it. Every time his elders place him one of his older carers and left to struggle back to the bank. Though
near the lake edge, he resolutely heads for the warmth and security this is rudimentary as swimming lessons go, it proves effective and
of the den. he does, eventually, get the hang of what those enormous webbed
With his big head and skinny body, Dali has yet to gain the toned feet are for.
muscles and sleek overcoat of the adults, and is clumsy and Dali’s next lesson is in fishing. Having come to terms with
vulnerable. It seems improbable that he will ever reach maturity – getting his feet wet, his initial attempts at ‘fishing’ involve
and, were it not for his encouraging, sometimes bullish family, screaming at adults who have caught something, in the hope that
he most certainly wouldn’t. they will simply hand it over. This ploy works – occasionally –
but Dali has a lot to learn: as an adult, he will need to catch about
FILMING GIANTS Charlie’s camera-cum- 3 kilos of fish a day.
And that’s not all: swimming up to 100m to the shore every time
UNDERWATER toy filmed giant otters you catch a fish is a waste of energy and also exposes you to the
playing underwater
greatest risk of attack by caiman, so eating while swimming must
Charlie is well known be mastered, too.
for his ‘Heath Robinson’
approach to film- BRUTAL BATTLES
making. But this All the while, Dali and his siblings are being watched by
natural world posed unblinking reptilian eyes. The lake’s numerous caiman
a new challenge: are opportunists, waiting for one of the babysitters to be
how to film giant distracted – if a cub becomes separated, it’s an easy meal.
otters underwater in Black caiman hunt the same prey as giant otters (mostly
a murky lake full of fish in the characin family, including piranhas), and,
piranhas and caiman. when fully grown, they are both larger and
There weren’t many stronger than the mustelids. The otters can
gadgets on Charlie’s makeshift raft, so he had to improvise: only co-exist with these formidable rivals
he emptied his metal water bottle and due to their tight social bonds and
strapped a small underwater camera to it to sophisticated vocalisations. They survive
make a floating toy. But would the otters like it? because they protect each other –
He needn’t have worried: they loved it and we because, together, they are a mob.
also loved the resulting, rather crazy, footage. Rob and his team have observed
numerous epic battles between otters
and caiman, including some that had
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OCTOBER 2017