1
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,480
I'm on the cycle track

2
00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:10,120
that goes from Bodmin in Cornwall

3
00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:12,120
all the way up to Bristol.

4
00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:15,000
And it takes you
through some glorious countryside.

5
00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:19,840
This bit here
is particularly special.

6
00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,080
I always stop here

7
00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:28,800
because this seems
like a perfect spot for otters.

8
00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:30,520
And, in fact,
there are otters here -

9
00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,080
there's probably one
watching us right now.

10
00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:37,320
But even though I've stopped
here literally dozens of times,

11
00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:39,560
I've never seen one.

12
00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,160
But I'm not that surprised.

13
00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:45,040
Although otters
are one of our largest carnivores,

14
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,680
they're incredibly secretive
and hard to see.

15
00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,800
40 years ago, otters very
nearly became extinct in England,

16
00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,000
yet they seem to be making
a remarkable recovery.

17
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:04,160
But what we really know about them?
Where are they? How can I see one?

18
00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,400
In the next hour,
Springwatch's confirmed otterholics,

19
00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:11,280
Charlie Hamilton James
and Simon King,

20
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,200
will delve into the secret life
of the otter.

21
00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:18,560
And Chris Packham will explore
just what an otter's made of.

22
00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:20,800
And I'll be delving
into the otter's past,

23
00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,280
looking forward into its future,
and trying,

24
00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:26,720
with the help
of some simple detective work,

25
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:31,440
to see how you and I can
actually see one for ourselves.

26
00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:35,720
So welcome to the
Springwatch Guide To Otters.

27
00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:09,560
Meet the otter - one of
our most charismatic animals.

28
00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,360
It's inquisitive, playful, elegant,

29
00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:15,000
but the otter has another side.

30
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:16,960
It's a skilled hunter,

31
00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,520
fiercely territorial about guarding
its patch. And what a patch!

32
00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,000
Otters live in some
of the most gorgeous places

33
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:28,920
in the British Isles.

34
00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,760
They recolonised these islands
after the last ice age,

35
00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,640
and over 10,000 years, they've
spread out from England rivers

36
00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:40,640
in the south, right up the coast

37
00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:42,920
to the northern most islands
of Scotland.

38
00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:49,720
They're generally solitary,
secretive creatures

39
00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:51,800
that like to keep themselves
to themselves.

40
00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:55,480
You might just glimpse a swirl here,
or a whiskery snout there,

41
00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:57,560
before it vanishes in the water,

42
00:02:57,560 --> 00:02:59,920
leaving nothing
but a trail of bubbles.

43
00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,280
So what kind of animal is the otter?

44
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,680
It's time to meet the family. Chris.

45
00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:16,040
Well, the otter is a member
of the mustelid family of mammals.

46
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:18,240
There are 54 species
across the world,

47
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,880
but we have seven in the UK,
and here they are.

48
00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,600
You'll certainly be familiar
with some of them.

49
00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,600
How about this little chap down here?
This is the weasel.

50
00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:39,480
They're ferocious little carnivores,
armed with really sharp canine teeth,

51
00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:41,600
and this one is especially designed

52
00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:43,600
to dive down
into mouse and vole holes,

53
00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:45,640
where they predate those species.

54
00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:47,880
It's slightly larger relative,
the stoat,

55
00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,920
does a very similar thing,
except that it is after rabbits.

56
00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:58,760
Over here, we have the polecat.

57
00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:00,880
Now these are very closely related to

58
00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:03,280
the domestic ferrets
that people keep.

59
00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:06,880
And then, the most arboreal of all
of the British mustelids -

60
00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:09,600
the fabulous
and exquisite pine marten.

61
00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,160
Once a species you could find all
over the UK, but these days

62
00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:17,320
sadly restricted to Scotland,
although they are spreading out.

63
00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:19,760
Perhaps the most
familiar of all of them,

64
00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,840
though, is this animal - the badger.
And here you can see that,

65
00:04:23,840 --> 00:04:27,280
typical of this group of animals,
it has five non-retractable claws

66
00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:32,400
on its front foot, because
it's using those to dig its set.

67
00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,760
That just leaves us
with the two semi-aquatic species,

68
00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:38,040
the mink and the otter.

69
00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,840
Now, the mink here
is not a native of the UK,

70
00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:43,240
it was introduced from North America.

71
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:45,160
In fact,
it's made a bit of a pest of itself.

72
00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:47,680
But the otter is truly a native,

73
00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:51,000
and when it comes to identification,
well, look,

74
00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,880
the mink is significantly smaller,
so I think that

75
00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:57,360
if you get a good view of an
animal swimming through the water,

76
00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:01,800
you shouldn't mistake anything
in the UK for the fabulous otter.

77
00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:07,920
And most of us, when we think about
otters, you probably imagine them in

78
00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:11,960
a river, but they don't just live in
rivers, they also live by the coast.

79
00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:15,200
Some people think that
the otters that live in saltwater

80
00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:17,240
and the otters
that live in fresh water

81
00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:19,480
are two completely
different species,

82
00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:22,840
but they're not, they're the
same species, the Eurasian otter.

83
00:05:22,840 --> 00:05:26,800
And of all the 13 different species
of otter that live in the world,

84
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,640
the Eurasian otter
has the widest distribution,

85
00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,480
and if I had a map,
I could show you.

86
00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,480
Oh, blow me down!
Good Lord, I do have a map!

87
00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:37,600
So, look, you can see, in the pink,

88
00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,800
that's where the Eurasian otter
is distributed.

89
00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:44,240
So the otters are here,
here's the heartland in Europe,

90
00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:48,520
but they go down south to Morocco,
and all the way across here,

91
00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:52,600
across the Himalayas,
down to Indonesia in the south,

92
00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:57,240
and now up here to
Kamchatka Peninsula in the north.

93
00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,920
But for our otters, although
they're all the same species,

94
00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:04,120
they do have
two very different lifestyles.

95
00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:11,080
On rivers in the south, otters
are almost entirely active at night,

96
00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:13,400
while the coastal otters
of the north,

97
00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:17,560
who rely on the shifting tides
to hunt, are out and about by day.

98
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,480
One of the best places
to see otters in the UK

99
00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,360
are the Shetland Islands
off the north coast of Scotland.

100
00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:32,400
Here, the sea has battered
the coastline over millions of years

101
00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:37,440
to create 3,000 kilometres
of perfect otter habitat -

102
00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:39,920
a rocky coastline
full of shallow pools,

103
00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:43,160
with plenty of sea caves
to rest up in.

104
00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:47,640
So this is the ideal place
for Simon King

105
00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:50,920
to give us his first guide
to otter watching.

106
00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:00,640
So, Simon, when you're
out trying to spot otters,

107
00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,080
what's the first thing you look for?

108
00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:04,320
Seagulls, obviously!

109
00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:06,480
There's a black-back,
great black-back,

110
00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,640
and herring gulls, all scavenging
birds, looking for an easy meal.

111
00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,360
If you see any of those
three species sitting on a rock,

112
00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:14,040
looking down into the rocks,

113
00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,480
it means it's watching
an otter that's already feeding,

114
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,080
and then you can very
carefully move yourself around

115
00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:22,160
to get a view of the otter.

116
00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:26,600
SEAGULL CAWS

117
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,960
Following them really closely
is all down to field-craft.

118
00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,640
If I'm to stand a chance
of a very close view,

119
00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:41,480
I've got to make my way
down the beach,

120
00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:47,320
and the only way I can do that is to
move when the otter is underwater.

121
00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:50,960
On the surface...

122
00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:55,480
..and down. OK.

123
00:07:55,480 --> 00:08:00,560
Otter dives rarely last
much longer than 30 seconds,

124
00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:03,360
so I don't want to move...

125
00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:04,400
He's up.

126
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:09,640
I won't move for much longer
than 20 seconds.

127
00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:13,760
And down again.

128
00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:19,960
OK, I'm just going to tuck myself
into the rocks.

129
00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:23,120
So it's absolutely vital that

130
00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:28,000
the wind is blowing
from the otter towards me.

131
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,000
That ensures that my scent
doesn't reach the otter.

132
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,360
OK, it's got a big fish.
It's coming in towards me.

133
00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:40,320
Oh, that's beautiful!

134
00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:46,240
Just look at that.

135
00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:49,080
What a great view.

136
00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:52,680
No more than that.

137
00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:02,560
(I can't sit up.)

138
00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:04,520
(She's started
to look in my direction.)

139
00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:15,760
To see an otter, like Simon, you've
got to try and think like one.

140
00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:20,640
Whilst he was in Shetland,
Simon got to know

141
00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:24,880
a couple of otter families,
each living either side of a bay.

142
00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,680
There was Ebb,
and her cub on one side,

143
00:09:27,680 --> 00:09:31,120
and Flow with two cubs on the other.

144
00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:36,440
Beautiful views. This is Flow, off to
the right, that's the adult female.

145
00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:39,320
Her two cubs off to the left,
18 months old now.

146
00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:41,120
Pretty independent, those cubs,

147
00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:44,320
but they still depend on their mum
for a certain amount of food,

148
00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,400
and, of course, an enormous amount
of care and affection.

149
00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,120
They're a very, very close
family unit, otters.

150
00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,280
Look at that,
lovely serpentine grace,

151
00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:54,360
moving from land to sea as one,

152
00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:57,640
and otters that swim together,
dive together.

153
00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,000
Look at this, one, two, three,
all of them down, looking for food,

154
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:03,400
we thought, but then
within about a minute or two,

155
00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:06,320
the cubs were up on the surface
having a complete barney.

156
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:10,440
Now, this isn't a scrap, this
is just hi-jinks, having a good time.

157
00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:13,760
But nothing being done
with any serious aggression here.

158
00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:16,480
This is the sort of behaviour
you might see when otters

159
00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:20,280
are courting, but right now this is
just the youngsters playing together.

160
00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:23,320
And then, look at this,
he loses his mate. "Where's he gone?

161
00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:25,960
"Where are you? Oh, there you are!"

162
00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,800
He thought the game was over,
then it's all off again,

163
00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:31,240
they're just superb to watch.

164
00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:33,520
Absolutely magnificent.

165
00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:35,720
Oh, where is he gone? There you go.

166
00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:39,640
Quick bundle, and then
no sooner did they disappear

167
00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:42,640
than one of them came up
with a huge fish, a lumpsucker.

168
00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:44,280
They went back into feeding.

169
00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:48,320
And the game was over.

170
00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:52,400
Twice a day, these otter families

171
00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:54,600
have food delivered
right to their door.

172
00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:09,640
A rising tide fills the shoreline
with a seafood smorgasbord.

173
00:11:14,560 --> 00:11:17,040
Although their main diet is fish,

174
00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:19,800
in Scotland,
otters are very partial to crabs.

175
00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:25,320
But whatever they are hunting,

176
00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,360
otters are spectacularly
manoeuvrable underwater.

177
00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:40,320
How can an animal originally
designed for life on the land

178
00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,840
be so good in water?
Over to you, Chris.

179
00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:52,880
You've got to watch your fingers,
but this is a fabulous place

180
00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:54,960
to appreciate just how well the otter

181
00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:57,400
is adapted
to its aquatic environment.

182
00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,280
I'm at the British Wildlife Centre
in Surrey,

183
00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:02,400
and these are obviously tame otters.

184
00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:07,040
They use their rear limbs,
which are well webbed,

185
00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:11,440
to push that body through the water,
and then they have that strong,

186
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,040
stout tail,
which they use as a rudder.

187
00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:18,000
The entire body is incredibly supple,
it can twist and turn

188
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,360
and bend, and when they're
swimming as fast as they can,

189
00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:25,200
they undulate that body to
improve their stroke, as it were.

190
00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:30,400
They want to be as streamlined
as they possibly can,

191
00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:33,480
and, as you can see,
they've achieved that

192
00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:37,600
with a long, lithe, slim body.

193
00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,960
Honestly, beautiful.

194
00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:48,400
You know, when I was a kid,
I was obsessed with otters.

195
00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:51,440
I was so obsessed
that my mother made a fake fur otter.

196
00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:54,880
It was a terrible representation
of this beautiful animal,

197
00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,520
but I would wind it up at the foot
of the bed and shine a torch on it

198
00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:00,880
and squint to make it look real.

199
00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:04,040
If this had happened to me
when I was eight, I'd have burst.

200
00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:06,440
I'd have burst spontaneously.

201
00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:11,720
Aw, a childhood dream fulfilled.

202
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:15,360
But come on, Chris, focus.
Back to the engineering.

203
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:21,440
To really understand
how an animal works physically,

204
00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:23,360
we need to look inside it.

205
00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:25,760
We've got a fabulous opportunity
to do that here,

206
00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:28,560
with this articulated otter skeleton.

207
00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:31,800
If we consider
the vertebral column here,

208
00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:37,520
it's got all of these flanges, and
those are muscle attachment points.

209
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,040
Now, the bigger and broader they are,

210
00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:42,800
the larger the muscle is
that's attached to them.

211
00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:44,680
So I can tell you, for instance,

212
00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:46,880
that there was a lot
of muscle tissue there,

213
00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:51,160
and, therefore, this is
a very supple and sinuous animal.

214
00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:53,880
And let's look at the feet,
because, on land,

215
00:13:53,880 --> 00:13:57,240
this animal is walking on the soles
of its feet, just like we do,

216
00:13:57,240 --> 00:14:00,120
and that tells me
that it's not fast-moving,

217
00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:03,760
because, typically, animals which
are fast-moving run on their toes.

218
00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,920
Think of cats and dogs,
and horses, of course.

219
00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:09,720
But, of course, here, it doesn't
need to be fast-moving on land,

220
00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:12,880
what it wants is broad feet,
which are webbed, as you know,

221
00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:17,600
because these are used for pushing
the animal through the water.

222
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:21,320
So what we've got here
is an animal that's supremely adapted

223
00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:23,240
for an aquatic lifestyle.

224
00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:29,120
There's no better way
to see this than when,

225
00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:32,000
on a calm day in Shetland,
Simon found an otter

226
00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,200
swimming in gin-clear water.

227
00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:39,320
It's really unusual to find a
steep drop-off like this, with water

228
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:42,960
directly beneath that's shallow
enough to attract an otter to feed.

229
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:46,640
And it's one thing to watch these
animals on the surface, but look!

230
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,800
I have to say,
this really is the clearest view

231
00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:54,480
I have ever had
of an otter hunting like this,

232
00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:58,440
and it's immediately clear that
it's not chasing fish directly,

233
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:01,240
or not at first, but instead...
Ooh, there you go.

234
00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,240
..charging after fish
that it disturbs from under rocks

235
00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:05,600
and through the seaweed.

236
00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:10,280
It spends most of its time foraging
through that weed in the dense,

237
00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:12,560
dense bladderwrack and kelp.

238
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:18,280
Little bit of a breather. Again,
you never get to see their feet

239
00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:20,240
when they're on the water
surface like this,

240
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,560
but you can just see,
she's so at home, perfectly relaxed.

241
00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:24,560
What a great view.

242
00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:31,040
Now, Simon King is clearly
a confirmed otterholic.

243
00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:34,640
But there's one other cameraman
who's always trying to get

244
00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:36,960
even closer than Simon.

245
00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:40,000
That is my good friend,
Charlie Hamilton James.

246
00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:46,240
I saw my first otter when I was 16,

247
00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:49,560
and I'd gone to Shetland
just to see otters.

248
00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:56,880
Luckily,
I've had lots of cups of tea,

249
00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:59,520
so I'll be able to keep myself warm.

250
00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:01,600
I think that's too cold down there.

251
00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,400
The otters won't hang around long,

252
00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:07,040
so I need to get on
with the serious business of being

253
00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:11,360
one of the only people ever to have
swum with a truly wild otter.

254
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,520
Usually they're incredibly wary.

255
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,640
The slightest smell
of a human and they're gone.

256
00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:24,080
But in the water,
my scent is hidden,

257
00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:27,240
and whilst they know I'm here,
they don't know what I am.

258
00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:36,280
I can see an otter
working the shore,

259
00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:38,280
and I'm swimming gently towards it.

260
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,640
And then suddenly, it appears.

261
00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:48,640
My first shot
of an otter underwater.

262
00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:52,720
It's incredible
how close I'm getting,

263
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:56,560
and although inquisitive, it's still
carrying on hunting and fishing.

264
00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:11,400
As it swims through the water,

265
00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:14,480
I can see for the first time
how otters use their whole bodies

266
00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,760
to propel themselves along,
not just their tails and feet.

267
00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,360
It's quite simply breathtaking
to watch,

268
00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:29,720
and I feel it can't get any better.
But it does.

269
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:38,960
This bold and brazen dog otter
is swimming up to investigate,

270
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,720
coming so close
he touches my camera.

271
00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,720
It really is a once-in-a-lifetime
experience.

272
00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,560
GARBLES EXCITEDLY

273
00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:00,600
That is, without a doubt,

274
00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:04,840
the best wildlife encounter I have
ever had in my life, by a mile.

275
00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:06,040
It is unbelievable.

276
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:12,320
Now, like Charlie and Simon,
I've spent some time in Shetland.

277
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,080
DRAMATIC MUSIC

278
00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:18,720
And it's not
always sunny and serene.

279
00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:28,120
The thing is, though,

280
00:18:28,120 --> 00:18:30,640
no self-respecting mother otter

281
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:35,080
is going to take
her cubs out in that!
HE LAUGHS

282
00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:38,120
It takes a lot to stop an otter.

283
00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:40,200
This mother and her cub
are out fishing.

284
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,880
Even in gale force winds,
they have to eat every day.

285
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:46,920
If they don't, they'll starve.

286
00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:49,800
And surviving in these
chilly North Sea waters

287
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,440
requires some high-performance
equipment.

288
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:59,160
The otter's fur is short,
fine, dense and velvety,

289
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,360
and it's also extremely good
at doing two essential things -

290
00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:06,800
keeping it dry and keeping it warm.

291
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:10,440
Let's take a closer look at
the fur using this microscope.

292
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:13,280
I'll just focus it.

293
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:18,360
You can see that the coarse hairs
there are what we call

294
00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:23,440
the guard hairs. They're about 20
millimetres long, and they're covered

295
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:28,680
with a water-repellent oil, and
it's these that keep the otter dry.

296
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:30,760
But if I part them

297
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,240
and we delve underneath
into the under-fur,

298
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,920
these hairs are shorter,
between 10 and 15 millimetres,

299
00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:40,680
and they occur
at an incredible density -

300
00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:45,280
60,000 hairs per square centimetre

301
00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:47,840
all over this otter's body,

302
00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,680
and they are really good
at keeping it warm,

303
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:53,520
because they trap
a layer of air here

304
00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:58,400
at a temperature ten degrees higher
than the surrounding air or water.

305
00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:01,960
And when it comes to staying warm
in water, you've got to try hard,

306
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:06,560
because we lose temperature 27 times
quicker through water

307
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:08,360
than we do through air.

308
00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:13,000
Now, if you've got a coat like that,
you certainly need to look after it.

309
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,960
And one thing you'll notice is otters
spend a lot of time grooming,

310
00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:20,160
particularly
if they've been into saltwater,

311
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,760
because the salt
leads to the breakdown of that oil

312
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,240
which is keeping the animal dry.

313
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,880
So they'll come onto land, actively
look for freshwater to bath in,

314
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:34,320
and then spend a lot of time
grooming, often in traditional spots.

315
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:37,800
At the end of the day,
if you've got a coat like this,

316
00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:40,440
you want to keep it
in tiptop condition

317
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:42,720
so you're nice and dry and warm.

318
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:46,920
HE SHIVERS
I could do with a bit of
extra under-fur myself, it's bitter.

319
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:49,560
Now, we've seen otters
frolicking about

320
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,360
in broad daylight on the coast.

321
00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:55,520
I don't know about you, but when
I think about where an otter lives,

322
00:20:55,520 --> 00:21:01,120
I tend to think about something
like this - a river, freshwater.

323
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,520
In southern Britain,
otters live not just on rivers,

324
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,560
but in lakes and marshes too -
anywhere, in fact,

325
00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:19,640
where there's water
and plenty of bushes for cover.

326
00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,680
Here it's much harder
to follow their lives,

327
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,880
because on a river,
otters come out at night.

328
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,360
There's no twice-daily tide
bringing food,

329
00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:34,960
but with dusk,
the river comes alive.

330
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:41,280
Away from prying eyes, fish
like bullheads and eels emerge.

331
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:49,360
And under the cover of darkness,
otters come out to hunt them.

332
00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:02,440
As the otters emerge,
so does Charlie,

333
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,680
hoping to share their lives.

334
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:13,760
He's spent more time than anyone
filming their movements at night.

335
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:22,400
Tonight he's using
a thermal imaging camera,

336
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,880
which works by detecting heat,

337
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:27,560
and shows up any warm-blooded
creature on the river.

338
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:34,000
I've got the ducks on it.
They're coming down the river,

339
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:39,040
and the ducks...
are right up against the edge.

340
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:45,400
Ah, it's really hard to see it.
There's the otter.

341
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:50,800
I've got the otter, it's right
near the ducks. They can't see it.

342
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:53,280
I can only just see the ducks.

343
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:55,920
Yeah, he's right next to the ducks.

344
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:58,720
There goes the ducks. Oh...

345
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,400
HE CHUCKLES

346
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:11,560
There's something very special about
seeing an otter at night like this.

347
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:13,960
And I guess
it's because you're seeing something

348
00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,920
that you shouldn't really be seeing.

349
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:26,320
From all the hours
he's spent watching them at night,

350
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:30,240
Charlie's noticed the otters
are constantly alert.

351
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:31,480
They're hyper-sensitive

352
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,040
to everything
that's going on around them.

353
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:38,160
OTTER SQUEAKS

354
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:46,320
The family cruise the river
like a well-oiled hunting machine,

355
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:47,920
diving after fish,

356
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,520
rooting around rocks
to dislodge crabs and crayfish.

357
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:08,680
Now and again they rest up
in special places - their holts -

358
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:13,000
hidden behind bushes or perhaps
beneath a tangle of tree roots.

359
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,300
This pattern of resting and hunting,
resting and hunting,

360
00:24:16,300 --> 00:24:20,240
is how they pass the night.

361
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,080
But I wonder if you, like me,

362
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:30,880
have ever wondered
how on earth otters find food

363
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,160
in this murky, pitch-black water?

364
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,080
One of the ways the otter
is going to be finding its food

365
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,800
is by using its whiskers -

366
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,720
these highly modified hairs
we call virissae.

367
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,640
And they
are extraordinarily sensitive.

368
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,400
Well, not the hair itself -
that's dead -

369
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:54,120
but it's the tissue into which it's
rooted that is absolutely packed

370
00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:59,120
full of neurons, nervous tissue,
and this transmits the information

371
00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:01,160
to the animal's brain, and in otters,

372
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,200
that part of the brain
is significantly larger

373
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:08,680
than in other species that are
not so reliant on their whiskers.

374
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,240
But, you know, it's not that
the whiskers actually have to touch

375
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,600
their prey,
or anything they're looking for,

376
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,040
because they
are sufficiently sensitive

377
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,080
to be able to detect the vortices.

378
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,320
Now, that the churned up water
that fish have left behind them

379
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,880
when they're swimming
through the river.

380
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,840
And what's even more astonishing
is that these animals

381
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:34,440
can actually detect which species
of fish has been swimming there,

382
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,080
even when the fish is long gone.

383
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:38,520
That's remarkable.

384
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,400
That's an astonishing bit
of biology,

385
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,280
but when it comes to hunting,

386
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:50,520
it seems that otters may have an
even cleverer trick up their sleeve.

387
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:54,240
Now, after hours and hours
of patient observation,

388
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,440
Charlie Hamilton James
thinks he's discovered something

389
00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:59,440
completely unexpected.

390
00:26:02,120 --> 00:26:04,440
So, Charlie,
I'm imagining I'm an otter,

391
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:08,400
I'm swimming around at night,
in possibly murky water,

392
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,360
that's a tall order.

393
00:26:10,360 --> 00:26:13,880
Now, apart from using...
sensing movement of fish,

394
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,160
what other senses
could I use to hunt?

395
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:21,240
I've got this theory that otters
also use smell underwater.

396
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,040
Yeah, but they are mammals like us,
so we have to go...

397
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:27,760
HE SNIFFS
..and they're holding their breath.

398
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,560
So how on earth can an otter
smell underwater?

399
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:33,600
Well, otters, they're supposed
to have their nostrils

400
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:35,800
completely closed underwater,

401
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,480
but I used to feed the otter
in my garden,

402
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,160
because I was rehabilitating one
to release him,

403
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,960
and I used to put
her fish in the river,

404
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:45,720
so that the rats didn't get it.

405
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,440
And she could find it. Wherever I
put it, she could always find it.

406
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,240
So I was always thinking,
"How can she find it?"

407
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:55,720
It's not moving at all.
No, so the whiskers thing,

408
00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:57,160
that's not doing anything.

409
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,200
It's dark, and the river's
all murky, so she can't see it,

410
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,560
so it's got to be something
else going on.

411
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,080
OK. So, I thought,
"Well, I'd better try and film it."

412
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:09,080
I invented some kit.
It's an underwater camera.

413
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,640
And I also put a nappy in it,
because it leaked.

414
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,160
THEY LAUGH

415
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:14,840
And then I put it in the river,

416
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,680
and I put a couple
of infrared lights on it

417
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,960
to light it up.
So it's still pitch dark.

418
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,960
I tied a dead fish to a brick,

419
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,440
I stuck it in the murky river
at night,

420
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:27,720
and it found it straightaway.

421
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:29,880
How? Can we see it?
Yeah, have a look.

422
00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:34,000
Here's the dead fish? Yeah.

423
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,560
And it's very quick, look, the otter
comes in, picks it up, it's gone.

424
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:42,240
Now, how does that tell us
that it's smelling the fish?

425
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,920
Right, well, at first, I didn't
know anything else was going on,

426
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:47,320
other than it had found it.

427
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:49,400
So I had to go back,
and look at this thing

428
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,400
and look at this thing, and
try and work out what was going on,

429
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,680
and this is what I noticed.
If you play it back really slowly...

430
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:58,480
There. There's a little bubble.

431
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:02,160
I thought that was just its nostril,
but just that little flash there...?

432
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,280
A little flash,
it's putting a bubble out,

433
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,280
and it's sniffing
that bubble back in.

434
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:12,120
And that's going to get loaded with
scent and the chemicals of the fish.

435
00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:15,720
And then once it's worked out what
it is, pick it up, swim off with it.

436
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:19,440
It actually exudes a bubble of air,

437
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,480
that somehow captures the scent,
and it sucks it back into its nose.

438
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:25,920
Absolutely.
Did you just come up with that?

439
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:28,760
Is that just
the Charlie theory from nowhere?

440
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,680
No, it's not. You know,
I knew something was going on

441
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,240
because I knew they could find them,
and then I'd seen a BBC documentary,

442
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:38,720
and in it
they featured star-nosed moles -

443
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:42,640
these very cool critters
that hunt underwater.

444
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,920
And what they'd done is
they'd basically filmed them

445
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,720
in very slow motion
and proved that they are smelling

446
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,080
by putting out bubbles
and sniffing them back in again.

447
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,800
The scent is in the water? Yeah.

448
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,920
But I put cameras above the water.

449
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,440
I wanted to look down on,
to see exactly what was happening,

450
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:02,840
so not just underwater. And
you can see, she comes up the river,

451
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:04,960
and she goes past the fish,

452
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,440
and then she suddenly makes
a very sharp turn, and grabs it.

453
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,240
So she clocked it.
Somehow she's detected it.

454
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,800
And a bit like the wind,
the river's going in one direction,

455
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,720
so any scent's coming down the
river, and when she went past it,

456
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,400
she obviously clocked it,
and came back round and grabbed it.

457
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:25,040
So whatever it is, she clearly can
do it. She is picking up that scent.

458
00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:29,280
And it looks like she's using
the Charlie bubble scenting theory.

459
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,440
I think that's probably
what they'll call it from now on!

460
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:34,440
Science in action, folks.

461
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,440
Now we know
otters are supreme swimmers,

462
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:43,880
they have a highly sophisticated
sense of both touch and smell,

463
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:49,200
all of which combines to make them
very, very good at catching fish.

464
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:52,080
And that skill
would inevitably bring them

465
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,880
into conflict with humans.

466
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:59,720
For hundreds of years, in Britain,
otters have been hunted.

467
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,240
Organised hunting of otters
was going on

468
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:11,840
way back in the 12th century,
partially to control their numbers.

469
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:16,680
But by the 20th century, otters
were being hunted purely for sport.

470
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,320
Someone who used to hunt them
was James Williams,

471
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,320
now one of the foremost
otter experts in the country.

472
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:28,920
What was the structure of the hunt?

473
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,840
Well, I've got a picture here
of my father,

474
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:33,760
who was the master of the hunt.

475
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,520
And there he is with some
of the officials and the hounds...

476
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:41,160
Great photo. ..and he organised
where the hunt would go

477
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,640
and then they would meet
at 10 o'clock or 10.30

478
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:48,880
at a bridge or a house
and set off to try and find an otter

479
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:50,960
and see if they could have a hunt.

480
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:55,680
I've got to say, you've got the most
wonderful collection of dogs
in this, haven't you?

481
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:57,640
They're purebred otter hounds.
Oh, are they?

482
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,520
These are purebred otter hounds?
Yes, purebred otter hounds.

483
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:02,720
Here's some more
and you can see there

484
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,440
what fine, upstanding animals
they are.

485
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,440
They're wonderful, wonderful hounds
and I love them.

486
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:11,720
And everyone's on foot.
Am I right? It's all... Yes.

487
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:15,360
No horses or anything like that. No,
no horses. All on foot. All on foot.

488
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:18,720
And long poles which people sometimes
say they were spears, they're not,

489
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:21,840
they're just walking sticks because
you've got to cross the river.

490
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,400
Now, with a fox hunt,
the fox will be in a bush or a...

491
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,920
But an otter's going to be a much
harder quarry, I would think,

492
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:30,400
to find in the first place.

493
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,600
Because there are far fewer of them,

494
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:36,640
the first thing you have to do
is find where the actual otter

495
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,200
has gone in the night and follow
its scent, which we call the drag,

496
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,560
and hope that eventually
you would locate the otter.

497
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,440
How many separate otter hunts
would there have been

498
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,840
up and down the country?

499
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,480
About two dozen. Most places were
in the territory of an otter hunt.

500
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:55,400
What sort of effect
did the hunting back in those days

501
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:56,920
have on otter numbers overall?

502
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:58,200
Very little effect.

503
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:02,440
We know that otter hunting
was going in the reign of King John

504
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:04,680
and otters survived perfectly well.

505
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,120
I think the hunts
were fairly beneficial

506
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:10,160
in that they stopped people trapping,
because it was much more fun

507
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,480
to see if you could have a hunt
and a day with your friends

508
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,440
than to set a trap and go in the
morning and find a mangled corpse,

509
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:19,680
so I think the hunt, in fact,
had a slightly protective effect.

510
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:27,840
But for all that,
between the 1950s and the 1970s,

511
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:31,560
there was a sudden
and dramatic decline in otters.

512
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,840
The hunts were the first to notice
there was a problem

513
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:39,160
and they immediately sounded
the alarm.

514
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,880
But the numbers of otters
continued to fall,

515
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:45,280
and in 1978,
otter hunting was made illegal.

516
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:52,600
Something was devastating
the population

517
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,240
and, finally,
after lengthy investigation,

518
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:56,840
the cause was discovered.

519
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:04,400
Toxic chemicals,
introduced in the 1950s,

520
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,520
were being used
by farmers to kill pests

521
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:10,160
and prevent fungal infestations.

522
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,320
The poisons
were washing into waterways

523
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:14,760
and building up
through the food chain.

524
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:20,640
Otters are a top predator
in our rivers

525
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:25,320
so the toxins accumulated in
their bodies to dangerous levels,

526
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,720
causing blindness
and fertility problems.

527
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,920
By the early 1980s,
otter numbers had crashed

528
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,680
by up to 90% in England -

529
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:39,280
they were on the brink
of extinction.

530
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:45,440
But a fictional tale about
the life of an otter in North Devon,

531
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:47,760
written at the peak
of the hunting period,

532
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,120
had begun to change
people's attitudes.

533
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,960
It was Henry Williamson's
Tarka The Otter.

534
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:58,440
Oh, this is Tarka when a child.

535
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:01,480
"The eldest and biggest
of the litter was a dog cub

536
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:05,120
"and when he drew his first breath
he was less than five inches long

537
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:08,760
"from his nose to where
his wee tail joined his backbone."

538
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:10,440
That's a bit twee, isn't it?

539
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,160
"His fur was soft and grey
as the buds of the willow

540
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:14,880
"before they opened Easter tide."

541
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:16,320
That's all right.

542
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,600
"He was called Tarka,
which was a name given to otters..."

543
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:24,240
"..many years ago by men
dwelling in hut circles on the moor.

544
00:34:24,240 --> 00:34:28,280
"It means "little wanderer"
or "wandering as water"."

545
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,360
Now, I read Tarka as a child

546
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:36,800
and it's a mixture of poetry
and raw, almost brutal, reality.

547
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,080
And Williamson was a realist.

548
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:42,160
He even joined to
his local otter hunt to make sure

549
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:45,760
the book was as accurate
as it possibly could be.

550
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,520
But when he wrote Tarka The Otter
85 years ago,

551
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:51,440
otters were still plentiful.

552
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,800
The great crash in their numbers
hadn't actually started.

553
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,760
So this isn't really a book
about otter conservation,

554
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:02,360
but it did start to change the way
that we think about otters.

555
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:06,480
And that change continued
with the publication of this book,

556
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,840
Ring Of Bright Water
by Gavin Maxwell, in 1960.

557
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,400
And this book,
and the film of the book,

558
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,640
cemented a change
that was already happening,

559
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:21,520
turning the otter from vermin into a
treasured part of British wildlife.

560
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,640
Otters had had a make-over.

561
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,040
Now they were playful and friendly

562
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:32,640
and there was an outpouring
of support for them.

563
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,880
Otter conservation
hit the political agenda

564
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:39,360
and they finally
became legally protected

565
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,000
in England and Wales in 1978

566
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,240
and just a few years later
in Scotland.

567
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:53,000
Where are you? Come on.

568
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:56,400
Meanwhile, new conservation groups
had sprung up

569
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,920
and one of these
was the Otter Trust,

570
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,760
set up in 1972
by Philip and Jeanne Wayre.

571
00:36:04,720 --> 00:36:08,240
They were so passionate about otters
they bought a farm in Suffolk

572
00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:11,160
and created large breeding
enclosures by a lake.

573
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:15,880
Rescued otters were taken in
and bred in captivity

574
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:20,360
and in 1983 the first three otters -
two females and a male -

575
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:22,440
were released
into a river in Suffolk,

576
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:25,480
where it was hoped
they would start a wild population.

577
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,400
So the otters took a massive hit,

578
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:35,520
but then the chemical pollutants
were banned.

579
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:37,520
The otters got legal protection

580
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,360
and a lucky few
even got a helping hand directly.

581
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:46,360
We had paved the way for their
recovery - now it was up to them.

582
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:51,800
Good news for the otter's recovery

583
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:54,000
is that it can breed
at any time of year

584
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,240
and produce a litter
of two or occasionally three cubs.

585
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,440
The den might
be an old rabbit burrow

586
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:04,920
or a hole in a tangle of tree roots.

587
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,280
It just needs
to be snug and secluded.

588
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:10,680
OTTERS SQUEAK

589
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,640
The cubs grow quite fast,

590
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,640
playing and sparring with each other
to build up their strength.

591
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:25,200
It's not until
they're about four months old

592
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:28,200
that they first venture,
tentatively, out into the water.

593
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:34,040
The family call to each other
with piercing whistles

594
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,160
to stick close together in the dark.

595
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,480
OTTERS WHISTLE

596
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:44,880
Mum teaches them
how to hunt underwater

597
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,560
and over the next eight months

598
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:52,000
they'll learn all the skills they
need to become fully independent.

599
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:59,120
So if you ever see a group
of otters together like this,

600
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,560
it's invariably
a mother and her cubs -

601
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:04,560
the male dog otter
doesn't stick around.

602
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:13,200
Whether on a river or by the coast,
dog otters are loners.

603
00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:16,760
As soon as they're fully grown
they move away from home

604
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,240
to find territories of their own.

605
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:22,680
And this they guard aggressively
against anyone.

606
00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:30,840
One of the ways
they define their territory

607
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,240
is by marking
its boundaries with scent.

608
00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:39,680
Otter spraint - their poo -
is a language all of its own.

609
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:43,440
Left on rocks or sandy mounds,
it's a warning to keep out,

610
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:47,280
a message that Simon
has clearly failed to heed.

611
00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:49,720
And here it is,
on all of the little high points.

612
00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:53,560
This rock,
a great mass of spraint here, here.

613
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:55,520
Behind me, here.

614
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:57,440
And if you get a close look

615
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:01,480
and there are still the odd
bubble on, then just keep still

616
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,280
cos the chances are
the otter's only just been here

617
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:06,120
and it's somewhere nearby.

618
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:12,960
Spraint is actually a complex
method of communication,

619
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:16,280
and just how complex
has only recently become clear.

620
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,040
Oh, yeah. Look at that.

621
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:26,600
You can clearly see
the reflective qualities there

622
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,920
of a lot of fish scales.

623
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:32,600
But, of course, to the otters,

624
00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:36,040
this material
has another very clear function

625
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:39,920
and it's all about
communicating through smell

626
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:43,800
and I've got some fresher samples
that have been collected here

627
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:48,080
that haven't dried out and I'm going
to give them a bit of a sniff test.

628
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:52,240
Now, some people say that it
smells like freshly mown hay,

629
00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:55,800
some, jasmine tea, but to me,

630
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,920
that's just pure otter.

631
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:03,760
The smell is made up
of 100 different components,

632
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:06,760
but 17 of those
are used by the otters

633
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:10,560
to identify the spraint
to an individual level.

634
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,120
So if an otter
was to sniff this itself

635
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:16,480
it could tell you
whether that was male or female,

636
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:18,720
five, six, seven, eight years old,

637
00:40:18,720 --> 00:40:22,720
whether it was sexually mature,
whether it was sexually active.

638
00:40:22,720 --> 00:40:27,400
It's Brian and he's had a fish
masala, without any doubt.

639
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:31,080
Now we can take DNA from this spraint

640
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:35,480
and identify the otters down
to individual level.

641
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,640
So, you see, far from being a
nuisance and something a bit quirky,

642
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:43,120
otter spraint is incredibly useful
both to man and beast.

643
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:51,600
Over the past few decades,
signs such as spraint and paw prints

644
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:54,880
have been used to try to chart
the otter's comeback in England,

645
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:58,880
and although overall this shows
encouraging signs of recovery,

646
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:03,960
it's difficult to know exactly how
many otters there are now in the UK.

647
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,840
Trying to identify individual otters
using their tracks

648
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:12,960
and their spraint is notoriously
difficult, but in the future

649
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,200
this new DNA technique
should make it much, much easier

650
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:21,800
and help us build a more reliable
picture of overall otter numbers.

651
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,320
Research so far suggests
otters are steadily recovering,

652
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:33,280
with numbers estimated at
somewhere around 2,000 in England

653
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:36,040
and perhaps 8,000
in Scotland and Wales.

654
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:50,080
In Scotland, where hunting's
now been banned for 30 years,

655
00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:53,840
Simon recently found signs
that otters are getting bolder.

656
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:59,680
This is an otter trap,
or, as they are known locally,

657
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:04,640
an otter "hoose",
built to trap otters for their fur.

658
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:11,600
This would have been the area that
the otter was attracted to going in

659
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:16,960
and here there would have been
a wooden sliding trapdoor

660
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,360
connected to a string
that went inside the structure

661
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:24,360
to a pressure pad
and if the otter walked inside,

662
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,720
touched the rock,
the door would close behind it.

663
00:42:27,720 --> 00:42:31,240
And then when the otter hunter
came by on his rounds

664
00:42:31,240 --> 00:42:35,400
he'd lift one of the big rocks at
the top, kill the otter, take it out.

665
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:38,240
Now, of course,
otters are fully protected

666
00:42:38,240 --> 00:42:42,640
and what is so fantastic and ironic
is that this otter trap at least

667
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:47,080
is being used very, very regularly
by the local otter, or otters,

668
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:50,280
as a resting place,
and their sign is everywhere.

669
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:55,720
There's a spraint here
which is no more than an hour old

670
00:42:55,720 --> 00:42:59,800
and I can see where the animal
has collected bedding

671
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:04,840
and made a lovely, warm, cosy nest
just inside.

672
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,680
How strange that a structure
designed to kill otters

673
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:09,680
should prove to be a des-res.

674
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:16,840
As they slowly spread across the UK,

675
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:20,080
otters are finding new friends
to help them on their way.

676
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:23,520
On a rain-soaked day last year

677
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:27,680
I went to help some volunteers,
led by inventor Chris Matcher,

678
00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:30,400
making specially constructed
otter holts.

679
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,440
'I've put up plenty of bird boxes
but an otter prefab?

680
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:43,280
'Like any flatpack,
well, you know how it goes.'

681
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,680
D? D. Where's D?
Which way round does it go?

682
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:49,680
It should be the other way around.
That should be that way round.

683
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:52,800
B. That's B.

684
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:54,400
(It never goes smoothly.)

685
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:56,560
'But, seriously,
when you're not filming,

686
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,040
'this holt can be put together
in under an hour.'

687
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:03,320
Girls with power drills -
very exciting!

688
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:11,720
Done. Chris,
thank you for a marvellous day out.

689
00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:14,240
Look what we've created.
Thank you very much.

690
00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:17,320
I shall volunteer
for more of this sort of work(!)

691
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:21,840
Let's get out of this!

692
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:28,200
Excellent! And helping otters isn't
just about building nest boxes -

693
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,560
sometimes it means
playing surrogate mum.

694
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:38,200
When these three orphaned cubs
were found by a roadside,

695
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:41,000
a local wildlife sanctuary
took them in.

696
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:42,960
The cubs had never been in water

697
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:46,400
so when the time was right,
a swimming lesson was arranged.

698
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:52,080
Over the next 18 months,

699
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,200
the cubs were taught to hunt
and fend for themselves

700
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:58,160
and eventually
they were put back into the river

701
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:00,200
very close to where they were found.

702
00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:09,800
The one thing that has helped
the otter's recovery

703
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:12,960
more than anything else
is the clean-up of our rivers.

704
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:17,440
And although pollution
is still a problem,

705
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:19,720
many rivers
have improved dramatically.

706
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:26,000
Otters are a litmus, a test,
for the health of a river

707
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:30,000
and their presence shows
that now many of our rivers

708
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:32,880
are the healthiest
they've been for 20 years.

709
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:38,400
And that's good news,

710
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:41,040
not only for otters,
but for all our river life.

711
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:50,800
It's not just our cameras
catching glimpses of otters -

712
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:54,200
here are some of your photos
from around the country,

713
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:56,560
courtesy of our Flickr photo group.

714
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:03,920
No longer restricted
to coast and countryside,

715
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:07,440
some 21st-century otters
are living right among us.

716
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:12,520
In the cathedral city of Winchester,

717
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:16,480
CCTV captured
these remarkable images.

718
00:46:18,720 --> 00:46:21,760
A mother and no fewer
than three cubs

719
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:25,040
playing quite happily
directly underneath the city's mill.

720
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:30,360
The Wildlife Trust now estimate
that otters are established

721
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:33,440
in at least 13 urban centres.

722
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:36,080
In Manchester,
evidence of otter activity

723
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:39,240
was recorded for the first time
since the early 1900s.

724
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:45,400
And in Newcastle, Simon was
thrilled by the sight of an otter

725
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:46,920
in the heart of the city.

726
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,560
That's the trail of bubbles that
every otter watcher wants to see.

727
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:57,200
I find it truly wonderful

728
00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:02,280
to think that as we drive over
these bridges in city centres,

729
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:06,120
scenes like these
might well be playing out

730
00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:09,160
under our wheels
all over the country.

731
00:47:12,240 --> 00:47:16,840
And this is testament
to an enormous turnaround

732
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,160
in the way we treat our waterways.

733
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:23,080
The fact that otters and herons
can find sufficient food

734
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:29,120
in these urban rivers
and pools is a clear sign

735
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:32,840
that these freshwaters live up
to their name - just that, fresh...

736
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:36,760
..and life-giving.

737
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:42,720
Now, otters are naturally
long-distance travellers

738
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:45,640
and that's what's bringing them
into our cities.

739
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:50,320
But not everyone is quite so pleased
to see them in the suburbs.

740
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:53,080
Some garden ponds
have been receiving

741
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:55,360
some very unwelcome visitors.

742
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:04,640
Imagine a small pond with
a big, sluggish koi carp in it.

743
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:08,720
To an opportunist like an otter,
it's irresistible.

744
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:23,600
It's not just ornamental
fish ponds that are getting hit.

745
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:25,640
Up and down the country,

746
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:29,680
otters are becoming a real headache
for commercial fisheries too

747
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:33,280
and I'm off to Somerset
to find out exactly what's going on.

748
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:42,440
This lake is owned
by an angling club in Bridgwater

749
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:45,320
and today its vice president,
Danny Danahy,

750
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:47,680
is having to restock it with carp.

751
00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:51,240
Now, Danny,

752
00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:55,760
I can't help noticing the
whole of the lake is like Colditz.

753
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:59,520
You've had to go to some really
extreme lengths to protect this.

754
00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:01,320
Yes. What has happened?

755
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:08,160
Over the last four years, we've put
in approximately 4,000 fish. Right.

756
00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:11,240
Last Thursday, we had about 50.

757
00:49:11,240 --> 00:49:13,920
Mainly roach, small bream.

758
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:19,000
The 1,500 carp
we put in more or less gone.

759
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:22,400
That must have been
crushingly disappointing for you.

760
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,960
Terribly. Terribly. It's costing us
an awful lot of money.

761
00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:29,360
The fence, we've put the fence up
to try and stop

762
00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:32,000
what we believe
is the otter doing it.

763
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:37,440
'There are a variety
of different animals it might be,

764
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:39,080
'not just otters.

765
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:40,920
'Mink will go for roach and bream,

766
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:43,760
'and with a slump in fish stocks
out at sea,

767
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:47,640
'more and more cormorants
are coming inland to hunt.'

768
00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:52,120
What's led you to think
that it is the otter in general?

769
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:54,920
Fishermen are actually seeing them
on the big lake over there.

770
00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:59,720
We've also found paw prints,
spats, dead fish.

771
00:49:59,720 --> 00:50:02,640
Dead fish, yeah. Dead fish.

772
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:05,640
From the photos of fish carcasses
taken by the club,

773
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:08,360
it does look like otter.

774
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:11,400
They'll go for carp because
they're slow and easy to catch

775
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:14,840
and they typically pick out
the muscle just behind the gills,

776
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:16,880
leaving the rest of the fish
untouched.

777
00:50:18,720 --> 00:50:20,840
We believe that
they're coming from the river,

778
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:23,000
which is in that direction. Ah. OK?

779
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:26,080
And we believe that
they're using that as a superhighway

780
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:28,400
to come off onto lakes like ours.

781
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:31,320
And they're opportunistically
looking for feeding stations

782
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:32,960
and they've found
your fisheries here.

783
00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:34,960
Found our fishery
and helped themselves.

784
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:39,640
As otters are legally protected,
Danny's had to invest

785
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:42,520
in putting up some sort of barrier
to keep them out.

786
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:45,920
And you had to sink
that into the ground?

787
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:49,240
That's gone into the ground,
about 18 inches into the ground.

788
00:50:49,240 --> 00:50:53,000
It's not a cheap option.
No, no. Very, very expensive.

789
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:56,840
For a lot of people, it could be the
difference between being in business

790
00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:59,520
or going out of business, you know?
Yeah.

791
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:02,080
And stock
is the most important thing.

792
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:06,760
Hmm, that's tricky.

793
00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:09,480
And the growth in commercial
fisheries and fish farms

794
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:12,480
happened when there
were hardly any otters around.

795
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:14,960
And now the otters
are making a comeback...

796
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:17,120
Well, for an otter,
this must be like finding

797
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:20,040
a free all-you-can-eat buffet.

798
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:24,080
I suppose the only option is to
think very seriously about fencing.

799
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:30,360
All these sightings of otters
could give the impression

800
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:32,640
that their comeback is complete,

801
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:35,880
but, in fact, whilst it looks like
they've recovered their range,

802
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:38,600
they definitely
haven't recovered their numbers.

803
00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:45,040
But they ARE coming back.

804
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:47,240
And that means
we've all got a better chance

805
00:51:47,240 --> 00:51:48,720
of seeing one for ourselves.

806
00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:53,760
So how do we go about it?
Well, I know just the man.

807
00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:58,080
OK, Charlie,
I've got maybe ten minutes.

808
00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:01,520
I am desperate to see an otter.
How do I see one?

809
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:04,320
Well, you're probably not
going to see one, to be honest,

810
00:52:04,320 --> 00:52:07,600
but there's a whole selection
of signs that you can look for

811
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:10,240
to tell you if there
is an otter there, at least.

812
00:52:10,240 --> 00:52:13,040
So we have to turn otter detective.

813
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:19,960
I know the basics
of what we're after -

814
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:22,600
paw prints, holts in the banks

815
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:26,480
and the heady smell of jasmine tea
from their spraint -

816
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:31,120
but I'm hoping Charlie can fill me
in with some fieldcraft tips.

817
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:33,600
I've got the right man -
he's scaring me to death

818
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:37,040
with gruesome tales
of their leftovers.

819
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:41,320
If an otter eats a trout,
it'll hold it like that on the body

820
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:42,920
and start with the head.

821
00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:45,800
You know what I mean?
Till it's gone.

822
00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:48,840
You'll find the crayfish, it'll be
the head and the claws they'll leave.

823
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:52,960
If you find the back of a crab, often
they'll have a single hole in it.

824
00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:55,680
You know, the canine of the otter
has gone through it.

825
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,320
Rat tails, so they've eaten
the whole of the rest of the rat

826
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:00,080
and they've just left the tail.

827
00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:04,680
'OK, Charlie, enough.
Show me some hard evidence now!'

828
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:07,440
What's the very first thing
in your top ten otter signs?

829
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:09,920
What are we looking for?
This, basically, look.

830
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:11,480
All these little dotty things?

831
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:13,600
Look, there you go.
All the way, straightaway.

832
00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:16,440
Any nice wet bit of mud
along the edge of the river,

833
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:19,280
if it's got otters, it's generally
going to have footprints.

834
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:21,320
That could be a dog
to the untutored eye.

835
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:23,160
What are we looking for
that makes it otter?

836
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:25,360
Well, key thing is,
it's got five toes, an otter,

837
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:28,720
and dogs and foxes have got four.
But they're so distinctive.

838
00:53:28,720 --> 00:53:32,480
Look, you can see
these teardrop paw marks,

839
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:34,520
like upside-down teardrops,
straightaway.

840
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:36,320
They are sharp at the end, like that.

841
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:39,200
What sort of size?

842
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:41,600
Look at that!
All right, let's measure one.

843
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:43,040
I always have a little measurer.

844
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:45,200
You're looking
at about five centimetres.

845
00:53:45,200 --> 00:53:48,960
I would have said that's sub adult,
teenager, maybe. Teenage otter?

846
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,160
Early teens. Early teens otter? Yeah,
you know that it'll have Mum with it.

847
00:53:52,160 --> 00:53:55,040
So if there's a mum and a cub,

848
00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:58,080
at somewhere on this river
will be a dog otter,

849
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:00,000
cos he'll have a huge territory,

850
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:02,640
encompassing
several different females.

851
00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:04,760
So you know just
from seeing these small prints

852
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:06,600
there are probably three otters here,

853
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,120
even though we are only seeing
the prints of one. Amazing.

854
00:54:15,720 --> 00:54:18,200
Now, Charlie, this is interesting.

855
00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:22,840
It looks like a sort of a trail here
going up there. Could that be otter?

856
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:25,080
Absolutely.
Otters cut corners all the time,

857
00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:27,200
and they cut corners
when they are going upriver.

858
00:54:27,200 --> 00:54:29,400
They don't need to cut corners
when going down river

859
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:31,240
because they've got
the energy of the river

860
00:54:31,240 --> 00:54:34,440
so they're not expending any energy,
but when they're coming upriver,

861
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,360
it's much easier to get out
and cut a corner off.

862
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:39,760
Now, obviously,
otters are fishing a lot of the time,

863
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:42,080
but sometimes they're not,
they're just on a mission.

864
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:43,440
And you're trying to film them,

865
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:45,560
trying to keep up with them
and they're just...

866
00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:50,320
for two or three miles, some of them,
and you think, "Where are you going?

867
00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:53,440
"Are you late for the cinema?
Is the fishmonger shutting?"

868
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,560
I don't really get it, but this
is when they're cutting corners.

869
00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:59,400
Otters on a mission.
He knows what he's on about.

870
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:02,040
OK.

871
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:05,720
O0h, it's a bit deep there, Martin.
You have to go tiptoes.

872
00:55:05,720 --> 00:55:10,000
That is the classic otter hole.
That is an otter hole.

873
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:13,000
Yeah, it's a hole in the root
system of an ash tree,

874
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:14,880
which the otters love to dig up into.

875
00:55:14,880 --> 00:55:19,120
So where's the entrance?
Is the entrance that bit there
where it's sort of a bit muddy?

876
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:21,120
Yeah, and you can just see
the hole in there.

877
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:23,000
There's not just one here either.

878
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:25,240
So there's another one
200 metres down there...

879
00:55:25,240 --> 00:55:28,160
Right. ..under a hazel tree.
And all the way up the river,

880
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:30,240
every few hundred metres,
there's another one.

881
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:34,760
That's a classic rock -

882
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:37,560
the otter is going to come up,
he can go out and poo on there.

883
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:41,760
Oh, look at that. Hey-hey!

884
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:45,920
Ooh. Isn't it lovely? Look at that!

885
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:48,360
Now, most otter scientists
and enthusiasts,

886
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:51,400
they like to pick it up
and move it around in their hands.

887
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:54,920
Not me. I use a stick.

888
00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:57,560
Are you listening, Chris Packham?

889
00:55:57,560 --> 00:56:02,200
OK, so you can see they've been
eating crayfish here. Look at that.

890
00:56:02,200 --> 00:56:05,000
The big bits of shell,
and that's why it's red.

891
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,320
Well, here's the crayfish,
but this is very different.

892
00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:08,440
It's green, for a start.

893
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:10,320
It's very fresh and it's green.

894
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:14,960
They've been eating fish here. I can
see little fish bones inside that.

895
00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:17,680
This is...
I mean, it's almost still wet

896
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:20,960
so you're talking
within the last 48 hours.

897
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:23,920
And, interestingly,
sometimes you find these

898
00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:27,560
and they've got bits of moor hen
in them. They love moor hen.

899
00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:29,000
This is a signalling system

900
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:31,840
so they're going to drop a little
bit here and a little bit further up

901
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:33,480
and a little bit further up. Yeah.

902
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:36,480
I mean, they don't sit there for 15
minutes reading National Geographic.

903
00:56:36,480 --> 00:56:38,760
MARTIN LAUGHS

904
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:41,600
Are there any final tips?

905
00:56:41,600 --> 00:56:44,800
Well, if you want to see an otter...
I do, I do.

906
00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:47,280
..you've got to get
the wind direction right.

907
00:56:47,280 --> 00:56:50,320
So what you want is you want
the wind coming off the otter

908
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:52,760
and blowing into your face
and if you do that

909
00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:56,400
you've got a pretty good
chance of seeing one. Brilliant.

910
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:02,920
There we are -
the Springwatch Guide to Otters.

911
00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:07,360
We've learnt what an otter is,
where it lives,

912
00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:10,200
what it gets up to on our coasts
and rivers...

913
00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:14,400
..even in our cities.

914
00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:17,640
We know its history,
and, most importantly,

915
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:19,960
how to go about seeing one.

916
00:57:22,440 --> 00:57:26,120
But there is one last question.

917
00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:29,480
Did I,
during the making of this film,

918
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:31,560
get to see an otter for myself?

919
00:57:33,160 --> 00:57:34,160
Yes!

920
00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:36,080
Charlie, Charlie, Charlie!

921
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:38,320
I just saw an otter! No!
I swear to you. Where?

922
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:41,080
I just saw an otter swimming
straight towards us up here.

923
00:57:45,120 --> 00:57:48,200
Just literally in this pool here!

924
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:51,080
It was coming straight towards us.
Did it see us?

925
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,280
Yes, because it was only there,
feet away from us.

926
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:56,960
The first time in my whole life.

927
00:57:56,960 --> 00:57:59,600
We've been here two minutes!

928
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:02,800
But I've only seen about five otters
here in the daytime

929
00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:04,400
in my whole life living.

930
00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:06,880
It was an otter in that pool
not 20 feet away

931
00:58:06,880 --> 00:58:09,560
from where we are right now.

932
00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:14,320
I never dreamt
I would see a river otter for myself

933
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:17,080
and we'd only been there
about two minutes.

934
00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:19,960
It just shows it can happen.

935
00:58:19,960 --> 00:58:22,160
But I promise you one thing -

936
00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:26,200
if you ever get to see
a wild otter for yourself,

937
00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:29,400
you will remember it
for the rest of your life.

938
00:58:44,760 --> 00:58:47,920
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