I came across this video and it just was so gorgeous I had to share it with you.

Who would have thought that otter pups had to learn how to swim. I imagined that it would have been instinctive for the little ones to go into the water and splash about but obviously not.

Love seeing how the mother looks after her baby and gets it to do what she wants it to, so that it becomes comfortable being in the water

A litter of three baby Asian short-claw otters were born at the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire and two of them were white. Don’t those little critters remind you of a black-eyed white ferret? So cute!!

Apparently an albino otter was spotted in Scotland last year but it’s the first time white otters have been born in captivity. It’s believed the cubs have a rare condition called leucism, a condition characterised by reduced pigmentation in animals, as well as in humans. These cubs are not considered to be albinos since leucism is caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin.

I almost hate reading the paper or looking at news sites these days.

That dreadful oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, heading towards all the fragile wetlands where there are mink and otters, not to mention all the birds, fish and *shiver* yes, even gators in its path. How ghastly is that for all the wild fauna there.

Then I see that the ash spewing out of that unpronounceable volcano in Iceland is toxic and is threatening the animals in that area.

My ferret friend from Croatia put the YouTube link up on the forum and when I saw this video, all I could do was thank the powers that be that ferrets are not QUITE as mad as these otters are!

I wonder if otters in general are as souped up as these two or are they just a unique pair of whirlwinds – LOL!

I thought it’d be fun to do a web roundup of our ferret’s close cousin, the Black-footed Ferret.

There is so much to learn about this mustelid and I often wonder how close it is in its behaviour to our little friends. If you take a look at the 2nd video, you’ll see that the BFF love doing the weasel wardance so I guess that makes it pretty close in some respects to our ferrets

In the first video you’ll see Jerry Murray is the volunteer veterinarian – he’s certainly been involved with ferrets for a long time. I first heard of him when I got Mash back in 1994.