On the 2nd of April 2022, I woke up early in the morning at around 6:00am ready to meet one of the otter families. I was very excited, hence I quickly packed my bag and headed to the meeting point. I was running a bit late but was really lucky to be able to reach at around 7:45am, where I was greeted by facilitator Marjorie and Yane.

Marjorie first introduced me to the Bishan otter family, which consists of 26 smooth-coated otters. She showed me the otters’ spraint (aka their faeces) and footprints, indicating that they were at the location before, which was also near where their holt (aka their underground home/nesting area) was. The spraint contained visible short fish bones, which means that the otters have really sharp teeth and are able to chew and swallow down fish bones. Even though the entrance to their holt looked really normal (like a regular hole; I would not know that it is their home), it is able to house 26 otters which was quite fascinating.

Marjorie told me that the otters have woken up early in the morning at around 6:15am and had made their way across the river to the Bay East Gardens. Normally, they will go left or right but they decided to swim across the river that day. After understanding more about their habitat, we took a 45 mins walk over to Bay East Gardens along the Nicoll Highway, even though the walk was a little tiring, the route was scenic which made the walk much much better.

When we arrive at the site, the Bishan otter family were swimming in a pond and having their breakfast (foraging for food), consisting of mostly fish. I was extremely happy when I got to see them in such close proximity and observe their behaviour. I heard many different kinds of noises, mainly 3 kinds: sounds of whining, grumbling when fighting and begging for food, high pitch squeaking by the adult otters and a deep short squeaking sound from the pups. There was also the crunching sound of the fish bones as they consumed the fish.

The otter family then head to another pond, when the leader of the group made a call, to forage for more food. However, when they were about to move to their next location, they left one of the pups behind. The pup was too scared to cross the pavement so it made sounds to call for help from his mom. We patiently waited and witness how the otter mother and pup communicated through their calls and they managed to reunite. 🙂

The otter family went into the river and swam across to forage for more fish to eat, however again they left their pups behind and some of them needed to come back to fetch them while the rest was busily eating the big catfish that was caught. At first, I saw how they were sharing the catfish, but eventually, it became a mini quarrel to claim a piece of the catfish for themselves. At the same time, I also saw how they co-exist with us in such an urban environment. Living in such an urban environment, a problem they would face would be high human traffic (cyclists and joggers), which would hinder them from crossing the park connector. Luckily, the facilitators managed to stop the cyclist and pedestrians to let the otters cross safely, which is a small action that we can do to ensure that not only the otters but we as pedestrians are also safe. The otters also defecated at another of their frequently used ‘toilet’ which was across the river.

In between and at the end of the walk, Yane shared with us more about the Otter Family, mainly the Bishan, Marina and Zouk families. Also, how the otter families are territorial and would fight for space, there was once a pup was killed during one of the fights and it resulted in the marina otter family retreating to another location. Hence, the territorial fights would ensure that their numbers are in check. She also touched on how the Marina otters were more friendly than the Bishan otter family, elaborating on the myth that many people think that there are too many otters and that they are everywhere, as we really do not know where they will be until we track their location down. Also, she shared that the Botanical Gardens incident was really unfortunate for the jogger as it was not him who step on the otter pup and was actually another jogger in front of him, however since he was the one nearest to the otters at that point in time, the otters attacked him instead. From this incident, we can learn that we should be careful of where we step and we should stay at least 3 to 5m away while observing these cute otters as they are considered wild animals and can pose harm to us if we go too near to them. Furthermore, I also learn that there are 2 kinds of otter species in Singapore, the smooth-coated otters and the other one I have not seen, the Asian small-clawed otter.

The otters also have many roles, such as apex predators to aid in clearing invasive species such as catfish, a bio-indicator of clean water as well as our mascot and feel-good trigger. They can be found in many places such as the sea, beaches, reservoirs, waterways, canals, drains, parks, park connectors, public open fields, and neighbourhoods as these places are interconnected and they would move from a big water body to a small water body and vice versa. They are intrigued by the sound of water, which is why they accidentally land in swimming pools and private fish ponds as they would want to check out the place to see if there are any fishes to eat. Hence, it is best to fence up fish ponds to prevent them from consuming our expensive pet fishes. Also, we can play our part to protect them by keeping our environment clean by discarding unused fish hooks, plastic, rubber and styrofoam responsibly.

All in all, it was a very meaningful morning witnessing the Bishan otter family and also meeting like-minded people who are passionate about wildlife and nature. I really hope that we can continue to co-exist with such wonderful animals in our urban environment and remember to always watch them from a distance to let them be comfortable in their own environment. Lastly, thank you to the organising committee for making this otter walk happen as well as to the volunteer guides from Otterwatch who shared with me so much information about the otters.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to more field trips ahead 😉