[GVGT] Otters Fans Club Thread!!!

[BlackWing1977]

 

[Mr. Wood]

other countries any animal can keep as pets

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

kodomodragon

·1 mo. ago·edited 1 mo. ago

Sir David Attenborough wannabe
I think it's worth sharing a bit more about Smooth-coated Otters to address some of the concerns others have brought up. The otter population has grown because of the abundance of food and other factors, but there are now fewer available territories, and their fiercely territorial nature means that there's limited ability for the population to grow much further.
TL;DR: Otters are fiercely territorial, the population will limit itself as it gets more crowded, life in the wild is not as easy as it seems and there is frequent mortality, culling is unwarranted, people need to learn how to behave themselves around wildlife.
Smooth-coated Otters are living in Singapore's urban areas because we've created conditions that allow them to thrive – our reservoirs and canals are clean enough to have abundant populations of (mostly invasive) fishes, with vegetation and potential denning sites. And scattered among them, we have even easier sources of food in the form of small ponds and water features stocked with colourful koi and other large ornamental fishes, and no barriers to exclude fish-eating predators. The majority of the otter families found in Singapore prefer to stay away from humans, and are not as habituated to our presence as the otters from the Bishan and Zouk families. There's so much attention and publicity focused on a handful of families because they live in urban areas, and go about their daily activities with humans in close proximity virtually all the time, when most of the otters live along our coastlines, in the mangroves, and in the quieter parts of our reservoirs and larger waterways.
Smooth-coated Otters are dependent on live fish – random people have thrown bread, biscuits, and even dead fish at wild otters, but these were rejected. They don't resort to scavenging trash, or snatching food from people. This is very much unlike the Wild Boar and Long-tailed Macaque, which are forest mammals that are readily lured into urban areas because of a combination of habitat loss and easy access to human sources of food, quickly become habituated to human feeding, and whose populations can rapidly increase and cause serious conflict because of feeding, whether deliberate or accidental. On the other hand, while otters are adapting to a manmade environment, they are still going after what can be considered their natural diet; they're not approaching humans to steal our snacks. To them, humans are just another creature in the environment; some otters are more tolerant of our presence (because they don't really have much of a choice), but they still don't see humans as a source of food. The behaviour is still natural, even if the setting isn't.
Each family of Smooth-coated Otters controls a large territory, which it fiercely defends from intruders. So every reservoir, large waterway, or stretch of coastline in Singapore is usually the domain of a single family. For example, the Bishan family controls much of Kallang River, Kallang Basin, Marina Reservoir, and the Singapore River. There are some areas of overlap, but rival clans keep to themselves, and if they ever meet, the results can be bloody, especially when a group has a clear numerical advantage. There are at least 3 much smaller families known to use Marina Reservoir, but they are very elusive and go to great lengths to avoid the Bishan family, because any close encounter with them will likely have fatal consequences. The Zouk and Sentosa families, which are also quite large, visit Marina Bay once in a while, but only when the Bishan family is away and spending more time at Kallang Basin.
Within each family, usually only the parents (the alpha pair) will breed – the rest are all young from successive litters. There are records of pups being born to the Bishan family that were not the offspring of the alpha pair, but these are very exceptional cases. So all the videos and photos of large groups of Smooth-coated Otters still essentially show a single breeding pair and their offspring.
Even after reaching adulthood, pups often stay with the family for a few years, helping to raise their younger siblings, but they will eventually disperse, striking out on their own in the hopes of finding a partner, establishing a new territory, and starting a family. Sightings of lone otters or small groups of adults without pups are typically young adults that have dispersed from their families – without safety in numbers, they're more vulnerable to threats. They roam about, usually staying out of the way of the family whose territory they're "trespassing" upon, because a clash with the resident clan may turn deadly. But the fate of most of these young adults is unknown. Between all the pups that have been born and subsequently dispersed over the years, and all the newer families that have formed recently, not all of them can be accounted for.
The lucky lone otters manage to meet up, find a suitable area that's unoccupied, and start a family. The Bishan family began that way – at first it was a lone otter hanging out at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, who then found a mate. They had a litter, and the rest is history. Similarly, the founders of the Zouk family are suspected to be a daughter that dispersed from the Bishan family, and a male from the Marina clan.
Some lone otters are able to join families that have just lost a parent, and then become part of the new alpha pair. Not long after the original Bishan Dad died in 2018, a lone male nicknamed Scarface introduced himself, and was accepted as Bishan Mum's new mate.
Once a pup grows up and leaves the family, the familial ties are completely severed; even though the Zouk alpha pair may be the offspring of the Bishan and Zouk families, there's no recognition of kinship during subsequent encounters. Sometimes, a group of siblings will disperse from the family, but if one of them manages to find a mate and starts its own family, the rest of the siblings will eventually go their separate ways.

Part 1.



Very good read from reddit... explaining why no culling is needed.

 

[BlackWing1977]

For example, initially, the Zouk family comprised a male (Zouk Dad) and a pair of females, believed to be sisters (Zouk Mum and Zouk Aunt). A litter of pups was born, and at first, Zouk Aunt helped to care for them. But something happened in mid-2019 that separated Zouk Aunt from the rest of her family; she went missing at first, and Zouk Mum had visible injuries. Zouk Aunt reappeared, but in a different location from the family. As her wounds healed, she was seen in the company of an unnamed lone male. At first, it was thought that she was still searching for her family. But when she eventually crossed paths with the rest of the Zouk family along the Singapore River, it wasn't a happy reunion; she and her mate were promptly chased away.
In September this year, Zouk Aunt and her mate started their own family in Marina Bay, and had a litter of two pups. Because of the risk of encounters with the Bishan family, she was forced to have her den in areas far from the water, and she frequently moved her pups to new dens. She had to pass through urban areas and cross busy roads every day to get to the water. The parents would only leave the den to hunt in the reservoir at night, when the Bishan family and other otter clans were asleep. However, despite these efforts, this new family recently lost both pups in November, after they sustained severe injuries from fights after running into a trio of adults, suspected to be another group of dispersing young adults from the Bishan clan. So while Marina Reservoir is clearly prime territory for otters, it's clear that life isn't easy for all of those trying to survive in the bay.
Combine that with frequent mortality from a variety of both natural and human causes (especially among the families that live in our coastal areas), and the calls for culling are frankly unwarranted. The main concerns that have been brought up repeatedly, mainly raiding of fish ponds, as well as defensive bites, are more properly addressed by setting up proper barriers to deny otters access to areas people don't want them to be, and education on living with wildlife. People in Singapore need to recognise that our urban environment is giving all sorts of wildlife opportunities to live in our midst, and regardless of species, large or small, they all deserve a basic level of space and respect. Human-otter conflict in Singapore genuinely isn't an issue of overpopulation - we could have only a single family of otters in the whole of Singapore, and people will still complain and call for culling because someone's koi got eaten, or somebody got too close and was nipped. It's because we're so used to being free to do whatever we want, without having to consider the needs of other species sharing the space.
Like it or not, with humans dominating the world, wildlife is constantly adapting to survive among us. We have otters, while in cities all across the world, people often have to contend with a host of other creatures, many of which pose a much more serious safety risk. Singapore is being highlighted everywhere as an example of how greenery can be incorporated in urban environments to provide habitats for wildlife, and the recovery of the Smooth-coated Otter in Singapore is being seen as a success story that bears hope for wildlife in other parts of the world. It's worth highlighting that as a whole, the Smooth-coated Otter is a globally threatened species that is generally declining in numbers, even in neighbouring countries with supposedly much larger areas of habitat. For better or for worse, with ever increasing urbanisation, more and more cities all over Asia are going to become like Singapore, and it's up to humans to figure out how to cope with living in a world where the lines between "the city" and "the wild" are going to become increasingly blurred.

Part 2.

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[Full_Cream_Milk]

Just now saw your mention what niniang braised gravy

Teochew style do you know how to make?

Where to buy any ready sachet and add into pot?

I want the traditional teochew watery type

Not those new sticky gluey nonsense at duck rice stalls.

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

Just now saw your mention what niniang braised gravy

Teochew style do you know how to make?

Where to buy any ready sachet and add into pot?

I want the traditional teochew watery type

Not those new sticky gluey nonsense at duck rice stalls.

Actually you can buy those bottle lor zhup from Lee Kum Kee to use also.. the zhup that are sticky and gluey because they add starch lar... or too much sugar and reduced until super thick.. which by then you can taste it liao.. super sweet...

 

[BlackWing1977]

So far I only mentioned how my godma used to make braised duck.. she always start with oil and white sugar to create the caramel then later will add water, dark soy sauce and nan jiang (blue ginger) I guess because that will help get rid of the gamey smell of the duck.. likewise for pork also lar... I not sure if she got add five spice powder or not leh.. maybe have lar.. but I think that one can just buy from generic one lor... dun need to add a lot one... then she will braise the duck.. then when it is cook, she will transfer to a big pot and add tau kwa, hard boil egg, tau pok also... then she will literally serve that over the last day before CNY and CNY 1 and 2.

The duck she will remove then let it cool down before she chop it up... usually if I am there she will save me a drumstick...

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

 

[BlackWing1977]

Zehzeh forcing kisses on BBFA otter!!!