Finding otters on the Isle of Mull
Eurasian otter | Lutra lutra
Last year Chris and I went to visit puffins up close in Wales and I loved that experience so much, I promised myself to visit one new wild animal each year. This year I was influenced by my wildlife expert friends Hannah Lawson and Helen Corney, who are also fantastic local artists. Hannah’s artwork was being exhibited in our local post office and, sitting there looking at her beautiful maps of Scotland with wildlife painted on them, planted the seed in my head. I would go looking for something fluffy and cute: baby otters.
Otters are a UK conservation success story. They were on the brink of extinction in this country toward the end of the last millennium due to significant human reduction of their habitat, overhunting and pollution in rivers from lethal pesticide run-off from farms. Conservationists and politicians stepped in to ban the most harmful pesticides, cleaning up our rivers enough to help fish and other animals survive…