Volunteers Successfully Return 9-Week-Old Otter To Its Family In Bishan In Day-Long Operation

By
Melissa Lee
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Getting separated from your parents and family when you are just nine weeks old can be a very frightening experience. And that’s why so many people teamed up to make sure a little nine week old otter could be reunited with its family. 

Image: Giphy

Otters In Singapore

Otters are without a doubt adorable, in fact, there are groups here in Singapore that are dedicated to following and keeping track of these little creatures, here in this urban city. 

Because otters are such a rare sighting here, members of these groups point out that they count every otter because every otter counts. 

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This is why some otter watchers managed to notice that an otter from the Bishan Otter Family was separated from the rest of them. 

Lost At Nine-weeks-old

It was a very scary experience for the tiniest and youngest of the Bishan Other Family’s litter to be separated from its family and left to take care of itself all alone at just nine-weeks-old. 

One of the Otter lover groups, Ottercity posted a video about what exactly happened. 

In the video, it was seen that the tiny otter was playing and hiding behind some leaves and bushes at Garden’s East. 

The little otter was so distracted that he didn’t notice that his family started swimming away without him and so he didn’t manage to leave with them. 

This left the little otter, otterly alone and scared.

Image: Facebook (Ottercity)

Members of Ottercity then decided to take action to stage a rescue to reunite the little otter with its family so they reached out to the Otter Working Group and Acres. 

It took a while but Acre soon came with cages and nets and all the equipment needed to safely capture the little otter to bring it back to his family. 

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However, despite trying to catch the little otter, it was too quick and nimble to be caught at that time. 

Calling In Backup

Image: Giphy

As the rescue attempt failed, more people were called to help out. 

Gardens by the Bay even offered to help by loaning more equipment and people. 

In the end, with the joint help of 12 people, Ottercity reported that they managed to form a barrier to stop the otter from running away and finally catch it in a large net, before placing it in a large yellow pail. 

Image: Fast Snail

They then located the tiny otter’s family, which was spotted 2km away at the riverbank. 

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Bringing the little otter back to his family, they let it out of the pail and allowed it to scurry back to rejoin the group. 

His family was so happy to see it return, they even let out excited squeals as they welcomed the tiniest of the family back. 

Image: Facebook (Ottercity)

Awww. 

Ottercity also thanked all who helped in the rescue mission and this included Acres, the Otter Watch Group, Gardens by the Bay and the National Parks Board. 

Image: Facebook (Ottercity)

I guess there is nothing teamwork can’t accomplish and sometimes there is no otter way to solve a problem then to get help from the people around us.

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We hope the little otter won’t lose its way again. But even if it does, he has a loving community of otter lovers ready to help him get back home.

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Melissa Lee
Email: [email protected]