Loca's Log
by Rod and Kechure Palm

November ‘97
(First section from June Scuttlebutt): As if we didn't have enough to do, a recent series of events has made Kechura the ward of a 14-week-old River Otter. There were actually two of these little guys but sadly we lost one of them. Here's Kechura to tell you about it.

On June 6, 1997, Strawberry Isle Research received a call about a baby River Otter which appeared to have been abandoned by its mother. Rehabilitating injured or abandoned animals is not apart of our mandate, so, I decided to care for the otter out of personal interest. Having quite an extensive library on such subjects, a great location and the expertise of several local people, I felt that I could handle the responsibility of caring for this animal.

Working under Rory Paterson's wildlife rehabilitation permit, we immediately began the construction of his housing, which includes a 450-gallon salt water aquarium with a pump, installed by Ian Bruce, that brings in constant flow of fresh water from the ocean. The otter was not willing to suckle. Therefore, decided that tube feeding would be the only way to be sure that he was getting enough to eat. His health only deteriorated, so when we heard that there was another otter in Errington, we decided to have it come and stay, hoping it would lift our little otters' spirits. When the new otter arrived, I knew that our little otter was not healthy. River otters give birth in March - April, which allows us to assume that the two were about the same age, our little otter was also approx. 2 lbs. lighter. He was still unwilling to eat and was becoming more lethargic by the hour. This new otter couldn't get enough food and was so full of life.

On the night of June 11, I was awake every 2 hours giving him electrolytes and when 7:00 a.m. rolled around, I asked Rod if he wouldn't mind doing the next feeding, as I needed a little more sleep. When there was only silence, I knew something was wrong. Rod then came in and told me that our little otter was gone. I cried all day, feeling as though it was my fault. After speaking to Rod, Rory Paterson and several others, I came to realize that maybe this otter was beyond revitalizing. Why was he left by his mother to begin with? I gave it my all and now know that it just wasn't meant to be.

A bit of good news, the otter that he left behind is doing very well. She's presently being weaned and is eating whole fish live. We would like to give her as much of her natural diet as possible. Rod has identified much of the natural food stocks to the following; pile and striped perch, shiners, blenny eels, bullheads and several species of sculpin and small flat fish, another favourite is red rock crab, but we have a steady supply of these. Unfortunately, it's very hard to keep up on her demand for fresh fish, and would appreciate any help that we can get. Any kids fishing off the docks, if you could keep your fish alive in a bucket and just give us a call @ 725-3958, they would certainly be going to a good cause.

A special thanks to the kids that have already come around with fish and to Dick Close at the Weigh West Marine Resort for providing us with supplementary frozen anchovies. Rod back.

Whether or not our society should be getting involved with this sort of thing remains to be seen. We'll just have to see how this one works out. I personally feel that we are in an ideal situation to be acting as a halfway house for young River Otters needing to adjust to life in the wild. As the animal spends more time in the ocean, we plan to leave the door to her den open so that she can come and go as she pleases. It's hoped that her returns will get fewer and farther apart until she becomes fully adjusted. I think that she won't completely break away until she gets the 'call of the wild' and mates with some handsome devil of a wild otter. Let us know if you think that our society should get involved with this sort of activity.

As a last minute update, the little otter has progressed from hand feeding to dipping her head into an ice cream bucket full of live Blenny Eels, to diving into a picnic cooler. She goes swimming with us in the ocean where she snoops around a bit but is a long way from catching her own open water fish. She is also starting to get vicious at feeding time when she is killing live prey. This is a good thing. Our intent is for her to return to a wild state, not to end up as a dependent pet.

(From November Scuttlebutt): Whatever happened to the orphaned River Otter from the June Scuttle Butt? We have been asked so many times that, even though there were some bureaucratic complications over this activity, I feel compelled to tell you the rest of the story. On our last report "Loca" (scientific abbreviation of the River Otter's Latin name Lontra canadensis) was two and a half months old and catching live Blenny Eels from an ice cream bucket. Within a week she was catching them out of a picnic cooler. At three months she has mastered hunting in a fish tote. Thanks to all the hard working little fisher folk on the waterfront she is treated to a menu of Bull Heads, Shinners, Blenny Eels, Greenlings and several species of Rock Fish. We're talking 30 plus fish per day. It's interesting that, without exception, she eats the Sculpins from the tail while the shinners are consumed from the head. She is now tipping the scales at 2.7 kg.

July 20 is a big day. She catches her first fish out of the big, 2,046 litre aquarium tank and makes her first circumnavigation swim around Strawberry Island. We have discovered that getting in the water and swimming with her is not practical. It's lots of work for us but not much exercise for her. We now jump in the row boat and she enthusiastically dives in and follows us. She is hunting in depths of about 1m. where she scours the bottom with her whiskers and comes up chewing all sorts of debris from clusters of small barnacles to gastropod (welks etc.) eggs on fucus algae. She is 3.5 months old and weighs 3.3kg. We have been having to supplement her voracious diet with the odd Salmon head from The Weigh West Marina who also generously supply anchovies when our live stocks are low.

July 31.
Swam her over to Uzatses Pt. around the channel marker and Strawberry Island. Still, she didn't have enough. Up until this tender age, otters don't have much for oil in their fur so they get soaked right through to the skin, must be dried and need a heating pad to take the place of the warmth of snuggling up to the rest of their family. Now you can see the sheen and feel the oil. One shake is all it takes for her to dry herself so we can now start taking her for longer swims. The problem is that she does little exercising when she is alone. I think that in the wild, they probably don't make a move without their moms.

Aug. 1.
Our salt water pump gave up so we are running fresh water into the tank. With the lack of salinity, the Red Rock crabs died first then the Rock Fish and Shinners. Sculpins seem to be hanging in there. Being very shallow critters up in the inlets they are likely more tolerant of fresh water. Having recently lost all our chickens to the voracious appetite of a transient Racoon, we have locked Loca in her habitat at night. We feel that her strength, tooth development and viciousness with prey are such that, on Aug. 8, we took the door off her habitat. The next morning she went out and down to the float where she spent the morning diving and playing about the floats.

Aug. 9.
Morning swim out and around shag rocks. She does this distance in 10' 44". This translates into a little better than .5 knots. She has discovered that she can swim faster completely submerged so she does that to catch up. She is catching all her own out of the big tank now. The Stag Horn Sculpins are a lot larger on average than a couple of months ago.

Aug. 10.
On their way out for a row, Kechura discovered a couple of wild otters hanging out under Mike's float house. Loca played around not paying any attention to the chirping from under the dock. After about 10minutes she noticed an otter pup pop its head out from under the float. Loca shied away but the wild otter came out from under the float and swam right up to her. Loca high tailed it to the safety of her own dock, when Kechura rowed over to get her she was quite reluctant to get back into the water.

Aug. 15.
Yesterday, when we went for our row I took a bag full of sculpins and threw them into the water at different stops along the way. She's a very smart animal this little girl. After the first fish I had trouble keeping her out of the boat. Today, I didn't let her see me throwing the fish. Gave the fish time to sink to the bottom then rowed over to the sight and waited for her to find them. She found all but one. Her weight today is 4.8 kg.

Aug. 19.
Rowed around in the back eddies of Strawberry Isle. Saw a distressed Blenny in shallow water. Loca found it, lost it and got it again. Her first fish in the wild but it was a bit of a cheat, the fish was only capable of spastic swimming motions.

Aug. 20.
Longest swim yet (2.5 hr.). Around Shag, Arnet, Stone and Neilson Islands (2.5mi).

I was pleased to see her surface with a Stag-horn Sculpin. This is her first real catch of a wild fish. She also made a grab for three Blenny Eels that were in inches of water in the dense Eel Grass. She lost two but got the third, about 20cm long. Dragged a Red Rock Crab up on the shore, ripped a leg off and crunched it up. When she finished the leg, she looked to get another but of course the crab had taken off. This was all a very big step for her.

Aug. 24.
On the back side of Stone Island I saw a single otter in the water so stopped rowing. Loca chirped away, the other otter saw her but, on seeing the boat, wandered up into the bush. Hung around for a half hour but he didn't come out even though Loca went up on the shore. In the afternoon, I saw a lone otter swimming by Strawberry Island so hucked Loca off the side of the boat. She was crying away and the other otter went over to investigate but Loca would have nothing to do with it.

Aug. 25.
Did some swimming with her, not too efficient, she just rides on your head. Speaking of their swimming, I can't think of any other land-based mammal whose hind legs move up and down in unison while the front legs extend back and flat against their bodies. The short arms and webbed hands are only used for making sharp, fast turns, while in pursuit of prey or for pulling themselves along the rocks. Their short strong arms are also used for holding prey while they rip off bite sized chunks that are chewed very well before swallowing, unlike seals & dolphins who simply swallow the chunks. They seem to forage about in the darkness in the same confidence as they do during the daylight hours. I believe that their sophisticated array of whiskers is what makes this possible. They hunt very close to the bottom by sweeping their heads back and forth and when their whiskers touch a fish, they grab it with a very fast sideways darting of their head.

Aug. 28.
Swim was over to Goat then around Duckling and back (3.4mi, furthest yet).

Sep. 2.
A mom and pup otter hauled out on the float at 07:15, sniffing about and craning their necks as they looked around. They made their way right up the ramp but didn't go any further. Loca had been on the float but ran away and hid. Only a short swim around the island today. I have a broken rib.

Sept. 3.
She went for a 1 hr swim around the island in the morning with Bob Nixon. She wouldn't go with him in the afternoon so I also had to go. We went over and around Riley Island. As we got back to the island, she was carrying something up onto the rocks and eating it. Close inspection showed it to be Purple Shore Crabs. This is her first time actively feeding on these guys. Bob has volunteered to take over Loca's care while we take off for a few days break around mid month.

Sep. 5.
A landmark day. While Bob took Loca over and around Neilson Island, two families of otters showed up on our float. There were two females, one with four cubs and one with three. They were having a great time in the row boat full of fresh water when Bob showed up with Loca. The wild otters jumped in the water while Loca ran up one of the firewood logs on the beach. She lay at the high end of the log in a submissive posture while several of the wild otter pups ran up the log and sniffed all over her. This is her first real contact with wild otters. We thought it was all over when the otters went back in the water and Loca went up on the boardwalk but when Bob walked down the ramp he heard the wild otters under the planks of the float. Loca was with him so he just sat at the bottom of the ramp. Next thing one of the otters is poking its nose through a rotten hole in one of the planks. Loca investigates and the nose disappears.

There is a game of tag played back and forth for about twenty minutes when Loca falls through the hole into the midst of the wild otters. There is a great deal of activity and grunting under the planks for about ten minutes when Loca pops back out of the hole to hide behind Bob. Surprise of all surprises, the wild otters haul up on the float right beside Bob. One of the females pokes her nose under Bob's arm to sniff at hiding Loca. She satisfies herself that it is not one of her pups and dives back in the water. At this point Loca spots me videoing from the boardwalk and comes charging up the ramp. As soon as she got there, I grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and threw her in the water. She immediately scrambled up the rocks and under the boardwalk emitting very loud frightened chirps as she went. The wild otters answered the cries and went charging up the rocks to investigate but saw Bob looking down from the ramp and changed their minds. This was the end of the encounter. It was apparent that this adventure left Loca with a lot to think about for she sat quietly beside us, not carrying on like the lunatic she usually is.

It's worth noting that the wild otter pups were still bugging their moms for food. In a half hour, I didn't see any of them catch a fish.

Sep. 10.
She only got her own swimming in today. Another encounter with the nine wild otters. All but one pup of the wild otters got scared away by a boat. Played tag through the crack in the planks. I went into the house and left them be. In about an hour the chirping stopped so I assume mom came back for her pup. Mackerel, Shiners and Sculpins.

Sep. 11.
She was off on her own for several hours today.

Sep. 22.
Loca has been sleeping in the forest for some time now.

Oct. 2.
Dropped her off at Stone Island in the afternoon. She didn't return until the next day. Most times we take Loca for a row we run into wild otters but she chirps away and hides by the boat. The wild otters hear her but won't come near. These days we have been dropping her off at different locations where we have seen otters. By dropping her off, she will run into them with no place to hide. She is now 6.1 kg.

Oct. 4.
Bad news today. Dropped her of on the east side of Morpheus Island. Got a call a couple of hours later. She had swum over to the Meares Island trail head, followed kayakers into the trail then back to their booking office. They called and I went over and picked her up. Can't drop her off near there again. It's looking like we may to have her dropped off somewhere up the coast if she hasn't gone wild by then.

Oct. 10.
Bob says that Loca showed up chirping away with four other otters. She circled the float house as she was calling but took off with the other otters. We think she has joined up with the mom with four cubs.

Oct. 14 and 19.
The regular gang of nine otters (mom with four cubs & mom with 5) is now 10. See them on the dock at Weigh West and Pete Schulze reports them on the mud flats between Stone and Neilson Island.

October 28, 1997
There are 10 otters (use to be nine, these are the same otters from sept five & 10) hauled up on our float and working the area for about an hour. When I called, one showed particular interest, stretched her neck up to look and called back. I couldn't see if its right thumb claw was missing. I'm shure Loca is the extra animal. The question here is "Could she be so attached to the wild otters that she wouldn't make contact?" Shure, when you think of it, since she joined up with them

(Oct 7), she has been in their company for 504 hours of continuous contact. With us since June 11 with an average daily contact time of, at most, three hours, that totals only 318 hours. Also with the wild otters, she would be in an environment where contact is not made with humans. Another interesting point is the fact that when I took over her care from Kechura, she very quickly focused into me as her primary contact. We went away for five days and left her in Bob Nixon's care. When we got back, she was focused on him for a few days until we got back into the routine. Otters seem to be the most gregarious of any of all the mustelids (Weasels, minks etc). Different families will commonly be seen frolicking together so the young otter has ample opportunity to mix with its peers.

This project was a feasibility study that went very well. Unfortunately, time and money costs were a lot more than we could afford. Strawberry Isle is an ideal location for this sort of thing but it will be some time before we would consider doing it again.

Looking after Loca for these critical months was an experience that not only taught us an awful lot about River Otters but gave us a special appreciation of the magics in nature. Instinctively doing things like swimming, pooping in a corner, preening, hunting etc. I find the wonder of all this very humbling.