Hyperactive Otters!


By Ali of Bank Street School For Children, NYC.


ali's drawing

All throughout the day, otters never stop moving or playing with each other. This is absolutely hilarious! Some people say that the playing is a part of the close social structure of the otter. Others (like me), just think it's because they think very much like human children. While in the water, otters swim up to each other and jostle each other from above or below. I can never understand why the jostled otter never gets upset at the other one. Once, while observing them, I saw a male otter swim in and out of a sunken tree branch. He could be training for the water Olympics!

I think the reason for so much otter movement is that all River Otters are hyperactive. Why else would otters run around a riverbank, jump into the water and swim upstream all in one minute?


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