I took this photo of the female Otter cub at Bosherston around lunchtime today. It was clearly unwell and allowed an extremely close approach from myself and two other observers. It looked rather thin and when it did move on it just went a few yards into some dense vegetation along the bank. The Otter cubs have been seen fighting quite viciously recently with the male, not surprisingly being a bigger animal, getting the upper hand. Whether the Otter I saw is diseased or is suffering from a skirmish is not known but it certainly seems that the Otter family which has enthralled many people at Bosherston has now split up.
Helen from the Rivers Trust gave a talk on otters at the Stackpole open day a week last Saturday where she explained that female otters only live for four years or so. The demands of feeding and rearing young put a great deal of stress on them resulting in most producing just two litters in their lives. Perhaps this one is a female who is at the end of her natural lifespan.
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