It’s been a while since we’ve had a mammal, hasn’t it? That’s because I have very few candidate mammals in the Just Once list, and too few mammals overall, really. But since the posts have been lean, we’ll have a video for this one.
Those are Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus,) and were found at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher, a new brood that had hatched there two years back. They also represent the only species featured so far to have “Asian” in the name – a little surprising to me, but okay.
On our visit to Goose Creek State Park last year, a ranger alerted us to the presence of otters early that morning, though we were there in late morning and saw no signs of them; these would have been North American river otters instead, and I do have a handful of frames of those, from the wild even, but am always happy to have more/closer/better because that’s what nature photographers do – I still take photos of osprey and great blue herons even though I have thousands of frames of those. When we revisited the park a couple weeks back I thought we had found otter tracks, but now comparing the sizes, I’m fairly certain we’d found something else instead. Still, if they’re there, I’ll be after them – the biggest issue is that I can’t get very early access to the park unless I camp there overnight, and I hate camping.
“But Al,” you interject snarkily, “can’t you endure a little hardship if it’s for the cause? Are you sure you’re a real nature photographer” Though I admit I don’t know the definition of a real nature photographer but I suspect it involves garnering more income than this from it, so no, I’m probably not – which gives me a handy excuse. But it’s true that, if I have enough evidence that it won’t be wasted effort, I may set up a tent overnight, knowing full well that I won’t sleep worth a shit and will be tired and stiff as hell when I’m chasing pics. And given your comment, I’m sure you’ll be buying a print or five when I do, right?