Welcome to the first Nature Minute, a special series of video blogs we'll be sharing over the next three weeks while BBC Springwatch is with us here at Minsmere.
While the Springwatch cameras allow us a fascinating glimpse into the intimate details of the lives of breeding British wildlife for three weeks this spring, a small group of RSPB volunteers has helped to produce a series of one minute films introducing some of the characters you might see on your television in the coming weeks (and some you might not), the places they live, the struggles they face and how they are being overcome, and, importantly, what we can all do to help.
You can follow Nature Minute on Twitter @RSPBMinsmere #natureminute
on Facebook: RSPB Suffolk
on the Nature Minute playlist on the rspbvideo Youtube channel
Or just watch it here!
Otters
Now otters, you may be thinking, are not birds- and you’d be right. But nature reserves, whether they are managed by the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts or a local community group, are all home to a whole host of creatures: mammals, birds, reptiles, plants, invertebrates, fish. Otters are one of the most fascinating and enthralling inhabitants of Minsmere, and one of our best-known native mammals.
Otters are in the same family as weasels, stoats and ferrets, but unlike their close relatives, they are most at home in and around water- although they are comfortable on land too. As predators, they hunt in the water, eating fish, eels, crayfish, and even water birds like coots and ducks, and they have some special adaptations that help them: their feet are webbed (like a duck’s) and they can close their ears and nose when they dive under the water.
An otter swimming with its nostrils and ears open above the water. Photo: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Historically, otters have been through a severe crash in numbers in the UK- in the 1950s and 60s- due mainly to pollution of our rivers and drainage and loss of wetland habitat, but human persecution was also a problem. By the 1970s you had to travel to Scotland to see otters in the UK, but today, thanks to legal protection, cleaner rivers and extensive efforts to restore wetlands and riverbanks, their numbers have increased and you can see them in rivers and wetlands all over the country.
While most people will know what an otter looks like, far fewer will have seen one in the wild- in a nature reserve or at their local river. At this time of year, many adult otters will be looking after their young cubs (or pups) inside their ‘holt’- an otter’s underground burrow. But they can still be seen coming out to find food and soon the cubs will be starting to venture out themselves for the first time.
There are lots of places you can go to see otters in the East of England, where we are not short the odd wetland or two, and elsewhere in the UK. They aren’t just found in freshwater either, and are equally at home in the seas around our coast and in coastal estuaries. And if you are on the Suffolk coast, Minsmere itself has one of the best otter viewing spots in the ‘Island Mere Hide’.
Find out more about otters: http://www.mammal.org.uk/species-factsheets/Otter
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Find out everything you need to plan your visit to Minsmere on the reserve home page