News from Tynemouth
Easter Egg Hunt for Otters
Otters at
Keepers at the award-winning wildlife attraction will be hiding more than a dozen differently coloured eggs around the otters' enclosure to see how quickly they can find them.
The hens' eggs - which have been coloured with natural food dye - will provide the aquatic mammals with a chance to demonstrate their foraging skills.
Blue Reef's Anna Etchells said: ""Asian short claw otters love eggs and will often supplement their diet in the wild by raiding the nests of birds so our Easter egg hunt shouldn't prove too challenging.
"However we have asked the keepers to hide the eggs as well as they possibly can and I believe there may be an unofficial competition to see whose egg is found last!
In addition to being a tasty and nutritious meal the eggs also provide environmental enrichment for the aquatic mammals as they play, juggle and even swim with them.
As their name suggests Asian short claw otters are found throughout southern Asia including
Unlike most otters, their front feet are only partly webbed and have short claws used for digging under rocks and in the mud.
These special adaptations make them particularly dexterous and you will often see them 'juggling' or playing with rocks and pebbles.
They are highly social and intelligent mammals with a wide vocabulary. Scientists have identified up to 12 different calls.
