122 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



has saved the creature from being exterminated 

 for the sake of its fur. 1 



One of the admirable qualities of the otter is the 

 intensity of the parental, especially the maternal, 

 care. The young ones blind and downy are born 

 in a soft-lined nest under the shelter of an inaccessi- 

 ble bank; the mother will at first hardly leave them 

 save on feverish rushes after the food necessary 

 to keep up the supply of milk. To guard them she 

 sleeps, like many a human mother, with at least 

 one ear awake. When they open their eyes she 

 cautiously carries them to bask for a while in the 

 winter sunshine, for their birthdays are often in 

 January. When they can clamber she teaches 

 them the woodcraft of the immediate vicinity of 

 the " hover " and the complete alphabet of the 

 sounds that mean danger. With her teeth she 

 punishes disobedient foolhardiness especially on 

 the part of the male cubs yet she shares in their 

 frolics when all sensible danger is distant. When 

 they are a little over eight weeks old and able to 

 follow her afield, she takes them to a quiet pool and 

 teaches them to swim, supplying by a gradual 

 widening of experience the liberating stimuli that 

 are needed to arouse their instinctive endowments, 

 In about a week they can swim with the fishes a 

 week which seems more like play than school, for the 

 otter is one of the animals in which there is pro- 



1 For the other side of the picture a sorry one see Joseph 

 Collinson's Hunted Otter. Animals' Friend Society, London, 

 J9H, 



