Rowan, a young otter paralysed after being hit by a car has been released after treatment at Oban’s Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary and by the International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) in Skye. The care he received made it possible for him t0 be transferred to Sky where he has grown into a strong adult otter.

Along with a female otter found in Perthshire to whom he has been introduced, Rowan has been released by the IOSF into a mainland freshwater loch.

The female, named Ceud becasue she is the one hundredth otter to be cared for at IOSF’s Skye sanctuary, was first resistant to sharing her pen with Rowan. She did a lot of screeching but did not attack him. But she must have grown accustomed to his smile because it wasn’t long before they were curling up to sleep together. At the start of their relationship, Rowan seemed timid but he soon got cheeky enough to start stealing Ceud’s fish.

The Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary – most of which is open to the public, is one of Argyll’s unsung assets. As well as its rehabilitation of injured and abandoned seals, it is a world leader in the notoriously difficult business of breeding seahorses – and in an earlier item we reported that this year it has a bumper breeding season.

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