It was a beautiful Saturday morning which made it a perfect day to go Otter watching. I made my way to Nicoll Highway MRT at about 7.20am where I met with the facilitators, Marjorie, Yong Lin and Yane!

Yong Lin was the guide for my group. According to him, the otter group that we were supposed to see that day was a family of over 20 smooth-coated otters! Unfortunately, they had woken up early that day and have already made their way over to the Bay East Gardens around 6 am. In the meantime, we were able to take a closer look at the otters’ nesting area. Interestingly, despite the fact that the entrance to their underground chambers looked pretty small and ordinary, the underground chamber could house over 20 plus otters all together! The otters were also quite particular about hygiene as they would only defecate at a specific location a little distance outside their nesting site.

We then made our way over to the Bay East Gardens by walking along the Nicoll Highway. I have managed to capture a beautiful scenery overlooking the Kallang River.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the sight of otters frolicking among the lotus plants for their breakfast. Their diets consist of mostly fishes. Similar to some of us, some of the otters were lazy to catch their own fish, and would whine at those who have happened to have a successful catch, hoping to get a free meal!

After they have had their fill, the leader of the group made a call which had the same meaning as “Time to go!”. One by one, the otters clambered up onto the banks and dried themselves by rolling and rubbing themselves against the grass. It was a really adorable sight!

When the otters have more or less dried themselves, they slowly made their way over to the river. However, they were faced with a dreadful problem: high human traffic. Even for us, it was somewhat dangerous to stand at the edge of the Park Connector as there was a chance that we could meet with an accident with an unsuspecting cyclist. Thankfully, our facilitators stood their ground in the middle of the human traffic and formed like a human barrier, successfully making a pathway for the otters to scamper across safely.

As we made our way to the debriefing location, I felt somewhat sad that my day with these otters has come to an end. At the same time, I was glad that I had taken the time to meet this amazing family. My experience that day has left me with much to ponder over. As the environment in Singapore flourishes, our encounters with these wildlife would only continue to increase. Yet, some members of the public have expressed their dissent and fear of these wildlife being a nuisance in our concrete jungle. Some even have demanded the culling of the population in hopes of “controlling” them. Personally, I find the views from this group of people to be really cruel. They choose to fear the wildlife instead of learning how to interact and understand them. In all honestly, these wildlife would not harm us unless we have provoked them first.