Fingal and Sula have had a very mixed season with so much changeable weather. In the heat wave that we had in August (yes it does heat up in Scotland every once in a while) both otters were given special ice lollies to help them keep cool. This involved freezing parts of their food in ice blocks and putting it in the pools for them to play with. Both Fingal and Sula had a wild time trying to get their dinner from within the ice. As you can imagine they do become quite excited as the ice begins to melt.

We have also had some very cold weather already and in the frosty mornings the otters were not keen to leave their holt and heat lamp which is now warming them. They have really loved autumn, rolling in the leaves that have gathered in deep piles all over the enclosure.

Unfortunately we have recently been the victims of vandalism and the underwater otter viewing area is badly damaged. Some visitors to the sanctuary etched a deep piece of graffiti into the Perspex window. This scratch will be buffed off the window once we close for maintenance work. It is a tricky job as any build up of heat can cause the window to turn white and make it impossible to see through. Naturally we are very disappointed that this has happened so soon after the enclosures opening.

The otters have both had some new food items recently in the form of rats, very small mice and prawns. Sula enjoyed the prawns after a bit of a pause to make sure they were edible. Fingal has loved the small mice but is not so sure about the rats, leaving them till the end of the feed. Feeding has been varied too of late, with the otters being ravenous at one feed and then not really bothering for the next few. There is no real pattern to these changes and so you never know what mood they will be in when you set foot inside.

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