From time
to time, I am asked to either release or rear an orphaned animal (mostly
birds). This is the story of a rather
secretive species.
In one of
my earlier blogs, I spoke about Charlie.
Let me tell you a bit more about Charlie. She was a ‘rescued’ Cape/African Clawless
Otter (Aonyx capensis) that found a
new home at Rookwood.
 |
| Charlie |
 |
| Charlie's river - the Tuli |
Charlie
apparently was found on
the Orange River as an abandoned pup. Ian rescued her
and she became part of his home until he realized that he could not keep her
locked up anymore and that she should return to her natural environment. Ian then searched for a suitable place to
release her back into the wild and through a couple of contacts, he was assured
that the Tuli River at Rookwood would be the perfect place for her to be freed.
 |
| Otter scats |
Just to
give you background on Cape Clawless Otters, they are fairly ferocious animals. They are called clawless as they have no
claws. Their main diet is crabs although
they can eat worms, frogs and fish. The
females tend to have a smaller range to the males who can travel up to 10km at
night time. They tend to lie up during
the day and forage mainly at night time.
They are quite secretive animals and one can identify the presence of
otters normally by finding their scats. They
use one spot to deposit their scats and these are referred to as mizzens.
 |
| the clawless feet of Charlie |
Years ago
I had come across an otter at the fountain at Rookwood. Meagan was still a toddler in my backpack and
fortunately the wind was not blowing towards the otter so it was unaware of our
presence. I stood in awe watching this
magnificent creature quietly enter the water in front of me. From then on I always knew we had otters in
our river and felt very privileged to have seen one.
So when Charlie was looking for a home, well we
had one. Charlie travelled down to
Rookwood from Aliwal North and arrived in the evening. The next morning we all ‘walked’ Charlie down
to the fountain. She was of course not
the fastest of walkers and was interested in all the smells around her.
At the fountain, it was as if we had given her
candy. She took to the water with great
delight and after a while she disappeared.
We left her down there as we assumed she had found a place to hide up
for the day.
Late afternoon we went down
and Ian fed her some chicken, which he had always done before. We left Ian to say his farewells. It must have been quite an emotional parting,
but she seemed very happy with her new natural pool.
I
continued to take food down to her towards late afternoon for the next
week. I would call her and she would
come and collect her food; however I did not try to befriend her as we wanted
her to return to the wild. Watching the movement of the
bubbles was always fascinating as she swam under the water towards you. This was a sign that she was present. One evening she was not around and I felt at
a loss, but realized that she must have moved further down the river to explore
her new found freedom. I was fortunate
to get some very good pictures of her.
 |
| Charlie with food |
Approximately three months later a friend of ours was walking up the river in the morning and came across an otter foraging. She seemed to be unperturbed by the presence of a human. We realized this was Charlie. A couple of weeks later I walked down the river and came to the same spot where she had been seen and called her softly.
 |
| Charlie's corner |
Whenever
I walk up or down the river, I look for the otter scats and find a lot and in
most cases they are fresh too. On odd
occasions, I have seen an otter too, but as to whether that is Charlie or one
of her progeny, I would not know. I am
just grateful she could be returned to her natural habitat instead of being
locked up in a house and swimming in a human swimming pool when her owner would
come home from work!
 |
| Charlie swimming the fountain |
