| Otters find "fairytale" love in Lockdown
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Pumpkin (photo right) the otter has found love in lockdown after her animal care team at SEA LIFE Scarborough answered an ad on Otter dating site "Fishing for Love" in the hope of finding her a new life partner.
Pumpkin, a female otter at SEA LIFE Scarborough recently lost her elderly partner Eric and was finding life without him extremely lonely, so the team at Scarborough headed onto otter dating site "Fishing for Love" to see if they could find the perfect match.
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After searching the entire lonely-hearts section, and a few bad swipes later (who said online dating was easy) the team were delighted to stumble across Harris´ profile, and it looked like the team may have found Pumpkin a "significant otter"!
Harris the Asian short clawed otter, who was residing at The Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, had also recently lost his partner Apricot, who sadly passed away, leaving Harris alone for the first time in four years and whilst it appeared that he may have resigned himself back to the bachelor lifestyle, it was clear he was starting to miss somebody to snuggle up and watch Netflix with!
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After exchanging a few WhatsApp messages and the odd picture or two it appeared that these two may make an otterly amazing match, so the decision was made to move Harris (photo right) from his Cornish home to SEA LIFE Scarborough which is located on the Yorkshire Coast.
The introduction of Asian short-clawed otters can be nerve racking and difficult to get right. To ensure the best chance of a new pairing getting off on the right foot, it´s best to introduce a new male into a female´s territory so that the male more easily submits to the female on first meeting.
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Whilst Pumpkin nervously awaited the arrival of her long-distance love, after all she´d heard plenty of tales of being "catfished", it appeared that Harris couldn´t wait to finally be united with his online romance to find out if this would be his happily ever after, much like he´d been watching on Netflix!
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Without wanting to rush into things too soon, the pair moved into rented accommodation at the SEA LIFE Scarborough site where they could get to know each other in private.
However, we are delighted to report that things are going swimmingly, and the pair have enjoyed a series of dates including a moonlight dinner for two, pumpkin pie anyone?
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As the pairs love has continued to grow, they have now received the keys to their forever home where guests at SEA LIFE Scarborough will be able to meet the happy couple when the centre reopens its doors on Wednesday 2nd December 2020.
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Harris will be continuing to keep in touch with his family at The Cornish Seal Sanctuary via WhatsApp, after all the internet is where this all this started but these two have certainly proved that you can find love in lockdown!
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Todd German, curator at SEA LIFE Scarborough said "After an extremely said period for both Pumpkin and the Animal Care team here at Scarborough we are delighted to report that not only is Pumpkin happy once again but Harris has settled in extremely well and has already become part of the SEA LIFE Scarborough family."
Tamara Cooper, curator at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary said "We are absolutely delighted that Pumpkin and Harris are getting on so well and he has settled in so quickly. He is very much missed here at the Sanctuary but after everything Pumpkin and Harris have been through with losing their partners, it is the perfect fairy tale ending for them to have found love again."
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Press Release issued by the SEA LIFE Scarborough
For more details, please contact Nicola Hinchliffe
Issue Date: 1st December 2020
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