The Otters’ Tale

This book tells the life of the British otter through the lens of a single female otter: Kuschta. It starts with her being abandoned by her mother, to finding her own home, mating and raising four pups of her own, and eventually abandoning them (the two who are left) in the epilogue.

Along the way, we get lots of detail about how they live, and the broader ecosystem around them – including the fish, ducks, crayfish, rabbits, and other creatures they eat for dinner. It’s a nature book as much as an otter book.

I was struck by how solitary and unsociable otters are – because I’ve only ever seen otters in captivity, I think of them as a friendly species. That’s very much not the case with wild otters!

A fun, easy read.

This was a gift from Mum and Dad for Christmas 2021.

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