I photographed an elusive animal on a REMOTE ISLAND in the North Sea

My name is Dani. I'm a wildlife photographer and I share my adventures photographing wildlife. I want to share intimate stories about wild animals and this story is about the secretive Eurasian otter. I've traveled to the Shetland Islands, a group of a hundred or so islands. Shetland is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. For a week I'll be following Brydon Thomason, a professional otter guide and photographer. Brydon has followed Shetland otters all his life and was deeply inspired by the first documentary on Shetland otters by Hugh Miles. And now he's invited me to Shetland to share my story getting to know these secretive animals. Getting close to otters takes careful field craft and lots of patience and I've got a lot to learn from Brydon this week. Today is my first day on Shetland. I have to admit I don't know a lot about Shetland. My first impressions are that Shetland is very remote, very windy and has some epic coastal landscapes. Shetland has this awesome viking feel about it and I'm really excited to explore this raw and exposed landscape with an otter expert. Otters generally tend to be pretty shy animals. They're always alert on the lookout for potential threats. One of their senses particularly acute is their sense of smell. You can only really use sights where the wind is blowing in your face taking your scent inland. That's really crucial. So judging the wind direction is the first first step to walk on an otter shoreline. So this is an otter halt. There are two entrances or exits and at the outside is a latrine so where they go for the toilet because obviously they don't want to go to the toilet inside their home so they go outside. Photographing otters is about perfect field craft. There's so many things we need to think about. Wind direction which will impact where we are on the islands, the tide times when we're going to be out looking for the otters and of course the weather. If it's too windy and stormy I can't take photos but if it's too still the otters are going to hear us. Brydon had spotted a dog otter which is another way of saying a male otter. Brydon told me what to do and where to be and funnily enough the otter went in exactly the perfect position. Otters are typically freshwater species but the otters on Shetland feed in the sea so they come onto land to rub the salt off their fur. The wind direction changed quite drastically and so did the weather. We could hear an otter cub calling and we managed to find it but the weather conditions were so bad I could hardly hold my camera still so we decided to call it a day. Brydon has been following this family for a while there are two or three otters they're around seven or eight months old it's weather's much nicer but we'll see. Brydon had spotted two cubs sleeping and got us into position. The cubs began play fighting meters in front of us and they went up to their hut which is an otter's home. It's a place to sleep and rest. Brydon then spotted another otter on the beach, Mum. She can be recognised by her darker coat. Mum goes up to the halt and collects the cubs and they all go out to the beach. After some bonding and grooming time it was time to go and hunt. Brydon quickly noticed that they were heading to the other side of the We had minutes to get to them before they did. We were just on time. Although we are meters in front of this pup she has no idea we're there. Their tiny eyes have evolved to see contrast in light especially when hunting in murky waters but they can't really see detail so as long as they cannot see our silhouette we stay quiet and still and we're downwind we just blur into the background. But a consequence of their poor eyesight is that the cubs get lost and this cub has lost her mum. She gives up looking for mum and gets back to a piece of crab that's been left. Otter cubs like crab because they're quite easy to catch but they're a little too crunchy and they lack nutrition so this cub needs to learn how to hunt fish soon. She'll only be with mum for a few more months. The truth is otter cubs get lost all the time and they can get separated from mum for several hours but we'll find out tomorrow if the otter cub finds her mum. Oh hi, I wanted to quickly tell you about the sponsor of this video. Squarespace make it really easy for you to make a professional website and I use Squarespace every day because I sell my calendars on there and this photo actually made it into my wildlife calendar and here is February. I sell my calendars on my online shop and let me quickly show you how I use Squarespace every day. I open up my orders and I've linked Squarespace to my shipping company and when I open Royal Mail all of my orders are already there automatically from Squarespace. This feature has literally saved me so much time and it means I can still make videos. If you'd like to give Squarespace a go head to squarespace.com slash dannycollarwild and you can save 10% off a domain or a new website with the code dannycollarwild. Back to the video. After yesterday's success we've decided to return to the same family. The wind direction is the same so we've got a good chance of catching up with them today and almost immediately Brydon spots them hunting offshore and he gets us in the perfect position and mum's got an octopus. She leaves it for the cub and goes back out to fish and someone else shows up the otter cub with a crunchy crab. I'm so pleased to get these shots of the otter cubs coming back with crab. Brydon tells me about the diet of the otters. They're incredibly well adapted animals it's always it always amazes me how well you know the fact that they can you can be watching this beautiful charismatic four-legged animal that all of a sudden goes from the land into the sea foraging underwater diving catching fish for the seabed that's really incredible. Fish definitely make the high majority of an otter's daily diet and yeah I mean on a good foraging day an otter could eat maybe up to a third of its own body weight you know an average full-grown mum she might I mean she might weigh somewhere about six kilos and so I mean you're talking about two kilos a day and imagine for for her feeding her and provisioning her cubs we pray as well imagine the amount of energy they have to expend to catch enough for herself and enough to you know to feed her cubs it's a it's a lot of energy burned in a day. Mum and the otter cub then started grooming just meters in front of us this really is a beautiful moment between two wild animals. Watching these two otters interact is so magical and truly touching and it just shows the intimate connection that these two animals have. There's something really really special the whole the excitement of otters watching them and spending time with them but the whole build-up and the anticipation of doing everything right taking your time patience reading all the signs the wind direction all the all the factors that come into it it's a it's an amazing experience very gratifying but yeah it's it's imperative that you put all we always put them first and as as an otter guide and some field naturalist that's um worth you know first and foremost that's that's my job is to make sure people watch otters responsibly and always put them first. It's our last day today and Brydon has taken me to a new location. But these brain points are like a they're each otter in there so an otter would come to it and that's what it's about. Brydon tells me about the importance of fresh water for otters. Access to fresh water for coastal living otters is almost as crucial as well as prey even because without regularly bathing in the fresh water the salt water crystallizes in their fur and that starts to break down one of their major defenses against the cold water temperatures so it's absolutely crucial that they have daily access to fresh water and are able to groom the salt water off of their off of their pelts. Okay so Brydon has just spotted a mother otter and she has cub so we're about to run along the coast being downwind and see if we can get close to these otters. Brydon kindly carries both our tripods because it's not easy trying to walk on slippery seaweed especially when he's just spotted a family of otters. It doesn't matter how much you know a species and take the time to learn about them and watch their behavior sometimes what you want to happen just doesn't happen and this family of otters slept in front of us for two hours and yet watching them snuggle together asleep on the shore so peacefully was the perfect end to our shoot leaving them unaware we were even there and they were still asleep under the setting sun. Thank you so much for watching I hope you enjoyed our adventure in Shetland finding the otters I'd never really seen otters so this was the first time photographing them and understanding their behavior and their ecology. Thank you to Brydon who took us out there and if you're interested in going on an otter tour or photographing seabirds up in Shetland the details for Shetland Nature and Brydon are in the description so have a look at the website and maybe book a trip in Shetland. Remember my wildlife calendar is linked in the description that features an otter photo both the squirrel and wildlife calendar help save the so you have an option or maybe you want both okay thanks bye