Linda was on her way to close up her North Mull greenhouse for the evening when she saw a small animal walking towards her. They both stopped dead in their tracks. But then the animal .. a small otter cub .. just kept coming. It followed Linda and even tried to climb up her leg. At this stage she realised something was wrong and coaxed it into a big plastic trug. “It looked at me for a bit then it curled up and went to sleep,” Linda reports. She and Richard searched for any signs of its mother inland, on the shore and at sea. But no otter was to be seen.

Sue Morley of Mull Otter Group was called to help and, sadly, found a lactating female otter dead at the side of the road; a road traffic casualty and almost certainly the cub’s mother. Sue took the cub home, kept it warm and fed it puppy milk every four hours. She estimates it weighed less than a kilo and was around 8 to 10 weeks old.

As soon as possible, the cub was transferred to IOSF, the otter rescue centre on Skye, where it received the best possible care.

He thrived and became a lovely strong otter ready for release back into the wild a year later. The sanctuary explained, “Dobhran lived in a large enclosure with space to keep away from us and with minimal human contact as we want rescued otters to keep their wild side. We know when otters are ready to return to the wild when they start to dig around the enclosure’s perimeter, keen to be out. Releasing Dobhran in September, when the fish stocks are still high, gave him the best chance of survival.”

Mull Otter Group tried to ensure that he would not be released into another otter’s territory. He was carried to a secluded spot on the shoreline and his cage was opened. He spent 10 minutes looking round. He emerged halfway out of his cage. Everyone expected him to lunge for the sea. But no, he went back in. Our fiery, feisty little cub had grown into a more cautious adult.

Eventually, he ventured out, sniffing, getting his bearings. Is it possible that he might have had a memory of the place where his mother would have brought him to wait while she fished? He rubbed himself on seaweed and rocks, slipped into the water and was off.

Dobhran’s original rescuers kindly watched out for him in the first few weeks, but he seemed to have taken to life in the wild like .. an otter to water?

If you would like to contribute to care for rescued otters, please go to www.otter.org