Rescued Otter Cub Scared Of Water Trained To Dive For Fish

June 3, 2022

A wildlife sanctuary that looks after seals, otters and cetaceans posted this wonderful video of an otter overcoming its fear of water to dive for fish.

Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary said:

"A major breakthrough at the sanctuary - Luna the otter cub who arrived from Whalsay in January has finally caught fish in the pool. We could not believe how reluctant she was to get wet, even though she is an otter and otters live half of their lives in the water.

We tried all kinds of things to lure her into the water, balancing her fish on a manhole cover in the middle of her pool, then using a washing up bowl and when those tricks didn't work we stretched some material across the pool, dropped the fish in it and then gradually lowered it day by day so she had to go in deeper and deeper to get her teeth around her dinner.

So it was with great joy that we went out to feed her and found her already playing in the pool. We pulled out the material, threw in fish and hey presto, she dived in, grabbed one and ran off to her hut to wolf it down. Phew! It never ceases to amaze us how each otter has their own unique character - you never know what to expect."