[updated with video] Following my post about the closing of the Ontario SPCA’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Kathryn Spraggett, Special Projects Manager for the Cottage Life Shows, reminded me of her visit this spring to release three otters. I’ll let her tell the story, complete with photos and a video of the vocal trio:
“I was looking forward to a typical May 2-4 weekend with the usual cottage opening-weekend schedule. I am very fortunate, because I get to spend my summer weekends at my mother-in-law’s well maintained and beautiful cottage. I mention well maintained because the only “work” I might have to do on this weekend is help clip in the window screens and the only “wildlife” to deal with would be our two newly adopted adult cats, who may or may not be cottagers. Then I got a call from Liz Springall at the Ontario SCPA Rehabilitation Wildlife Centre inviting me to participate in the release of three river otters into the wild. Of course I have no idea what this means, but it sounds cool, so I agree to join her.
So there I am with my sis-in-law, Linda Armstrong (former host of Cottage Life Television), waiting at the designated meeting spot behind a Harvey’s somewhere in cottage country and wondering where the river is. Turns out this is just the beginning of our journey. After the crew from the centre and the otters arrive, we pile into a couple of vehicles suitable for bumpy roads and drive another 45 minutes to the next leg of the trip. Along the drive we learn more about the otters. These three were rescued back in the fall, two from a swimming pool and one from a cranberry marsh. The law requires that once rehabilitated animals demonstrate skills necessary for survival in the wild, they must be returned to the place they were found. These little guys weren’t going back to the swimming pool, so the centre obtained special permission from the Ministry of Natural Resources to release them in an appropriate habitat.
My first awareness of the otters is some serious screeching coming out of the plywood nesting box that has been their home for winter. They are being transferred from the back of the car to a trailer that will take them a little closer to home. We are joined by the owner of the property who has spent the last three weeks clearing a rough trail through his woods. The crew—there are eight of us by now—slowly bump through the woods for a half hour and reach the top of a slope; the trail has ended and we can see the water below. From there it’s all muscle power as the more fit among us (not me, I’m filming and trying to stay upright) take turns carrying the awkward load down the slope through the woods.
With the plywood box nestled between two trees, it’s time for the otters to explore the world. The door is opened and we wait. We wait some more. A head pops out screeching, then another head, then they pop back in. A head pops out again, then another, then three heads screeching and
squirming. It’s a scary three-headed monster now. They are stuck in the opening. Hmm. They go back into the box. They try again. They are the Three Stooges. This goes on for a while until they figure out that the three of them can’t fit through the opening at once. At last, they all make it out onto the ground and run around over each other, under each other, around in circles. They find the water. They are home. We all watch them for a while as they explore their new habitat. They don’t stay close for long but none of us wants to leave right away. We keep watching and listening. Maybe they’ll come back and say “thanks.”
Walking back through the woods I notice Liz’s smile, she doesn’t need to be thanked. The otters have moved on as though they never left their wild habitat, and that’s what it’s all about!”
—Kathryn Spraggett (photos by Linda Armstrong)
Watch a video of the otters being released
Have you had a close encounter with wildlife? Tell us about it in the comments below.
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