Watch otters at play at the Lakes Aquarium

Visitors heading to Lakes Aquarium, near Newby Bridge in the Lake District, can take delight from an innovative and far-sighted otter enrichment project initiated by employees.

This otter programme, offered as a visitor experience three times a day, is providing both keepers and the two Asian short-clawed otters, Mia and Smudge, with mutually rewarding relationships with significant implications for the future wellbeing of the playful creatures.

It provides visitors with opportunities to both watch the otters at play and learn more about them, through observation, listening and discussion. A keeper describes, from within the pen, how and why he is interacting with the otters in a certain way, whilst visitors observe and listen from outside.

An opportunity to ask questions is then available once the keeper leaves the otter enclosure.

Mia, aged five, and twelve-year-old Smudge are highly intelligent and inquisitive otters to whom home is an area within the Asia zone of the globally themed aquarium.

The background to the new visitor experience is that employees recognised that a future need to administer injections, or box an otter in preparation for a vet inspection, could be made easier if a really strong bond and trust was built between keeper and otter.

Also, due to UK Zoo Regulations that put certain restrictions on the feeding of live food to creatures, Lakes Aquarium’s otters are not able to use their inherent skills to catch prey such as amphibians and small mammals.

In the wild, 60-70 per cent of their time would be spent foraging for food with their front paws. These have digits providing a dexterity akin to that of human hands.

To compensate for this lack of food-foraging activity within their day and to make animal husbandry as stress-free as possible, Lakes Aquarium employees searched for advice from zoo experts worldwide.

With the benefit of this guidance and the use of techniques that 24-year-old Gareth da’Bell had used in training horses at his home stables, Crooked Birch, a new, on-going otter enrichment programme was devised.

This has now led to Gareth da’Bell gaining affiliate membership of the prestigious Otter Specialist Group – part of the World Conservation (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC).

A variety of toys now form a crucial role within ‘scatter feeding’, leading the otters to forage in their water pool, or investigate where food might lurk within other features and plants introduced to help replicate life in the wild.

Some toys are simply introduced to bring otter joy to everyone involved. These range from a football, to a set of keys – the latter introduced by accident when the otters started to play with a set dropped by their feeder!

Point feeding – feeding the otters individually by hand – has also been incorporated, to enhance a keeper’s control over the relationship.

Visitors are regularly thrilled by the sight of Mia sitting on the knee of her keeper, a relationship of trust and respect having been forged. Both otters happily interact in an intelligent and mischievous way, though both retain their individual characteristics and have distinct food and toy preferences!

Those wishing to see this otter interaction experience can do so seven days a week, at 10.30, 12.30 and 15.00. The morning and afternoon session includes feeding, whilst the 12.30 slot is a talk without feeding.

The experience is included within the standard entrance price of £8.75 for adults, £5.75 for children and £24.95 for families of two adults and two children. Up to 25 per cent can be saved by buying tickets online at lakesaquarium.co.uk.

Lakes Aquarium is open from 9am to 6pm during the summer months with last admission one hour before closing.