Living Coasts Part 2/3: Elegant Wading Birds, Adorable Otters, & Playful Seals

The three otter brothers

Last time, I wrote about the penguins and other sea birds I encountered during a trip to Living Coasts last Monday (9th). This post is all about the otters, wading birds, and seals!

Part of  Waders' Estuary

After leaving the marine birds behind, we went into a separated area for the wading birds, called Waders' Estuary (pictured above). It consisted of reeds, grassy areas, trees, and sand banks surrounding water. As with Penguin Beach and Auk Cove, Waders' Estuary overlooked the bay beyond and gave a very peaceful feeling to the enclosure. 

A pied avocet

A black-necked stilt

The species of birds that shared this space were pied avocets, black-necked stilts, ruffs, redshanks, and oyster catchers. Some of the birds were inside their shelters, while others wandered around elegantly around atop their long legs, on the sand, through the grass and in the water. The black-necked stilts in particular seemed to be in pairs, occasionally chasing each other around or mirroring one another's movements. It was quite lovely to watch - as was listening to them!

We we spent some time watching the waders, before heading around to the next environment, Otter Rapids (pictured below).

Part of Otter Rapids

The otters housed at Living Coasts are Asian short-clawed otters, which are apparently the smallest of the thirteen types of otters in the world. 

A chart of "Otters of the World"

The three brothers living in Otter Rapids were born at Newquay Zoo, and brought to Torquay together when they were old enough. It was obvious that they had a very strong bond, as they followed behind one another in a line around their enclosure, making squealing and barking sounds at any humans they saw. It soon became apparent that it was their feeding time soon and they were becoming impatient - hence all the noise! 

Otters looking for hidden food

When feeding time finally arrived, the keepers put the three brothers inside and hid their food in various places around the enclosure. This was done in order to give them more of a challenge and some mental stimulation, just as they would have when finding food in the wild. 

As soon as the door to their shelter was opened, they immediately broke the tight formation that they'd had for the rest of the time and went off in search of the food individually. According to the keepers, otters have an extremely good sense of smell and so it took them very little time for them to find most of the hidden morsels - even those underwater.

However, there were three or four that they had to search for for quite some time, and they seemed to enjoy the process. In fact, the otters seemed to make a game out of almost everything they did; it was very endearing!

Fur Seal Cove

The next area of Living Coasts that we went to was Fur Seal Cove, which is home to four South American fur seals (three females and a male). Above the water, the two biggest would take it in turns to laze on a large rock, while the smallest would pull a large yellow buoy around playfully. 

They were all very vocal when they surfaced, with whichever was atop the rock seemingly taking the lead. The noise they made was a rather delightful mix that was halfway between honking and a chainsaw! 

This pool was only part of the seals' enclosure; there were also other places where they were able to emerge from the water. Also, they had  additional, interconnected underwater swimming spaces, most of which were visible through subterranean viewing windows. That's where we next saw them.

Seeing the seals underwater was a completely different experience. They moved with incredible agility and speed, which they lacked on land and on the surface. Although they're only semi-aquatic animals, when seeing them move submerged, it became quite clear where they were most at home.

After watching the seals swim for a while, I noticed some paper fish, covered in glitter, attached to one of the frames of the tanks. In the middle of them there was a sign that explained that the seals enjoyed interacting with visitors by following the fish, so I grabbed one and held it against the window.

It did indeed attract the attention of one of the seals (I think it was Gemini, the youngest), who disappeared and came back several times to investigate, spinning and twirling in all directions as she did so.  She left one last time, before returning to show off with a "toy" that she obviously thought was far more entertaining than my paper fish. And she was right, haha!

We watched her play with the shell for a around ten minutes. During that time she would also look through the glass periodically and briefly follow along with the paper fish, before returning to the more exciting shell.

Two of the other seals - the large male seal and one of the other females - also began playfully swimming around with her during this time as well, which was really fun to watch. But she kept hold of her precious shell the whole time!

Shortly after that, it was the seals feeding time, so they vacated the tank we were viewing and we left that area.


That's it for part 2/3 of my trip to Living Coasts! Next up: Meeting the Creatures of the Deep!