Rudi the Otter appearing on BBC TV Natural World

Our hand-reared otter Rudi appeared on the BBC TV series 'Natural World' this week, in an episode entitled 'Supercharged Otters' presented by Charlie Hamilton James, pictured above.

The footage was recorded in a studio where they had constructed a tank with glass sides. They filmed Rudi underwater so they could observe exactly how otters swim by slowing down the film. The accedemically ground-breaking sequence towards the end of the documentary showed how otters smell underwater by making an air-bubble and then re-imbibing it. Fascinating.

The first time Charlie Hamilton-James saw an otter was when we took our very tame Asian short-clawed otter Bee to his primary school about 33 years ago. He said he has been 'an otter fanatic' ever since.

Rudi appears swimming underwater in the opening sequence and with Charlie in later scenes that can be watched in the UK on BBC iplayer by clicking here

or on Youtube here:

Line drawings of the otters are by Sophie Neville and feature in 'Ride the Wings of Morning'
They are sold in aid of The Waterberg Trust as limited edition prints. Please click here for contact details.

Scottish Mussel - featuring Rudi the Otter

A new British film is being launched on 23rd September starring Talulah Riley, Martin Compton, and Joe Thomas of In Betweeners fame, along with our tame otters. I travelled up to Dunoon in Scotland to help with the scenes that, in the story, entail an injured otter brought into a wildlife conservation centre set in a beautiful location outside Glasgow.

Belinda the Otter with Sophie and Daphne Neville

The romcom is written and directed by Talulah Riley who also stars in what promises to be an amusing movie. Talulah was keen to feature our very energetic young male otter Rudi in a scene where the otter is released back into the wild.  To achieve this on film, without losing him altogether, was quite a feat but he enjoyed himself and the result looks endearing.

When one of the producers asked if I had worked on any other films featuring animals, I had to admit there have been quite a few. We had a baboon in the studio once and I became quite used to filming with trained elephants. I worked with a whole variety of exotic animals on the vet series ‘One by One’ from a pelican to a full grown leopard. In the mid 1980’s I was lucky enough to spend four months on Corfu making the first BBC adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s autobiography ‘My Family and Other Animals’ with Brian Blessed and a huge number of tortoises. As it happens, Rudi will appear in the next series of The Durrells, with filming due to start soon.

To see more about what the otters have been up to, please go to Daphne Neville’s website here.

You can read about living with tame otters in my book ‘Funnily Enough’ available in the UK here in paperback or on Kindle here

There are more photographs of the otters here

The DVD, which will be released on 3rd October, is available for pre-order here

One of our hand-reared otters who stars in ‘Scottish Mussel’

What Sophie did next

Sophie Neville leading The Waterberg Trust Challenge Ride 2016

My dream of riding through the game reserves of South Africa became a reality. In February 1992 I flew to Johannesburg and became a horse safari guide in the Waterberg, a beautiful upland region where I was able to live in the Africa bush and spend time painting.  

Even now, twenty-five years later, I grab the chance to return to Africa whenever I can. This March I persuaded twelve experienced British riders to take up the challenge of raising £1,000 each for Save The Waterberg Rhino and local community projects.

The idea was to traverse 175kms of remote country while taking the opportunity to learn about rhino conservation and discover more about the Waterberg.

Since the horses live out on the reserve the wild animals allowed us to get unusually close.

We spotted quite a few wildebeest along with warthog, zebra, giraffe, buffalo, hippo and many different species of antelope including sable, nyala and rare Livingstone eland

Meeting white rhino was an extraordinary experience, especially since I was on horseback. They are accompanied by armed guards 24 hours of the day and have had their horns saturated in poison to render them worthless in an extreme measure to prevent their illegal killing.

Riders were given an update on the poaching situation and urgent needs for extra protection in the Waterberg, which is home to the second highest population of white rhino in the world.

While there are a number of complex issues to take on board, we all determined to do what we can to protect this iconic species. If you would like to get involved or find out more The Waterberg Trust have a Facebook page here. I am raising sponsorship on Justgiving.com here

Sophie Neville at Ant's Nest in the Waterberg

Living with Otters ~

Sophie Neville with her tame otter

We have kept tame otters at Bakers Mill since 1980. These are not the large, secretive European otters that are native to Britain but sociable Asian short-clawed otters bred in wildlife parks that we've been asked to hand-rear, usually because they have been neglected by their mothers. We keep them, under license, for educational purposes. Their enclosure has a stream running through it and bath-tubs where they swim. They are cautious about of swimming in the deep water of our lake - unless we swim with them, which is a somewhat demanding experience. Being sociable the otters love showing off and are regularly taken both for walks and off to country shows around England and Wales where you can watch them and ask questions about otters.

Daphne Neville with her otters

My parents started lecturing on the conservation of otters thirty-five years ago, promoting the need for pure water in our rivers so that our native otters can flourish and re-gain healthy populations in the wild. At one stage they had four tame otters but they have never bred them, for these are exotic species that cannot be released into the wild.

There are thirteen different species of otter. They are often elusive and difficult to spot but I have watched European (or Eurasian) otters fishing along the coast of Skye, spotted spotted-necked otters playing in the Okavango Delta and Cape-clawless otters swimming at Knotsie Bay in South Africa. My mother has travelled the world to see to them in the wild  ~ to California where you find the sea otter, India where she supports the hairy-nosed otter project, to an International Otter Convention in Chile and has even swum in the Orinoco River with the giant otters of Bolivia that can reach twelve foot in length.

Our first otter was called Bee. This was because otters smell slightly of honey. She had so many adventures that my mother wrote a children's book about her. This came out in hardback in 1982. When she found second-hand copies for sale on Amazon recently she had a smaller paperback version printed.

With illustrations by Jackie Gouvier they are designed so you can read one story a night at bed-time for two-weeks or so and make good presents.

If you would like a copy, and live in the UK, please send a stamped-addressed A5 enveople with £1.20's worth of stamps and a cheque for £5 made out to the author, Daphne Neville, Bakers Mill, Frampton Mansell, Glos, GL6 8JH. You can find second-hand copies of the original hardback on Amazon - please see the carosel of books below.

Sophie Neville with Beenie the Otter and her first painting

Hand-rearing otters is very demanding. Can you imagine having an otter cub in your bed? They are hyper-active and extremely dexterous. Until the age of 4 months they are frightened of water and will not even go near a running tap. Introducing them to it takes time and patience.

I was once given the responsibility of looking after a lovely little female otter we were asked to rear called Beenie. She became very tame but I quite ran out of ways to entertain her. Once she was about three months old I put down a plate with a little water and added colour from may paintbox - watercolours in rose pink and sap green. I laid down a slab of mount board and let her play. The result was a series of truly beautiful paintings, delicately executed. Once framed they looked beautiful. We auctioned the one above to raise money for charity - not for conservation, as it happened, but for The Hyperactive Children's Support Group. It seemed apt. Beenie went on to open the Wildlife Arts Society Exhibition in Bath, appearing in The Daily Telegraph as a result.

Beenie the Otter with Sophie Neville in the Daily Telegraph

On another occasion we appeared on the front cover of The Daily Telegraph newspaper with the Prince of Wales and Beenie became a true ambassador of her species.

The  Prince of Wales with Sophie Neville

I have related some of the stories about keeping otters in 'Funnily Enough' but there are many more. You can see more of my own sketches of the otters - and their attempts to distract me on the Ride the Wings of Morning Blogspot.

 

'Otter with girl'
 http://www.sophieneville.co.uk/BEENIE/mainmenu.html