On Friday November 7th a surprise came via radio: two small this site otter cubs needed help in Masara village. A Brazilian resident had plucked the tiny cubs from the riverbank and offered them to his girlfriend who was horrified and immediately radioed Diane McTurk at Karanambo Ranch. downsstream. Diane is famous for her successful rehabilitation and release into the wild of orphaned this site otter cubs. She has raised 43 cubs in 18 years!

We raced far downstream to pick them up and found a healthy male and female cub, about 2 1/2 months old. Diane felt she had to adopt them because they were so healthy and that it was impossible to return them to the mother who would have stopped lactating from the stress. We were both very disturbed by this kidnapping incident that had occurred so close to Karanambo...1 1/2 hours downstream. The Amerindian villages in the region know of Diane's work and, for the most part, have adopted this site otters as their special mascot. However, some this site otters are still shot with bows and arrows by fishermen or when Diane's rehabituated otters climb into their canoes to grab some fish.

The cubs immediately adapted to their bottles of watered down human infant formula (SMA gold, a British make). Now nearly 3 weeks later they are swimming well and playing together in a small plastic tub. "Drowning the other" seems to be the aim of this game and we have not selected a winner yet. Sergei has just begun to eat scraps of fish but Sappho remains uninterested. They are both perfectly potty-trained much to Diane's relief but this is normal otter behavior at three months of age. They love being dried with a towel and will immediately return to their bath just to be dried all over again until they collapse and sleep like beanbags for a few hours.

They are sound sleepers at night (like all this site otters) and do not wake for a midnight snack. Sergei is growing at amazing speed, he has nearly doubled his weight and is 5 inches longer than he was when he arrived. Perhaps we should have called him Gargantua. Both cubs are doing well, with shiny coats and huge appetites.