Otter and Conger Eel

Having spent nearly fifty years filming wildlife there are bound to be occasions when something happens whilst you are filming that you are quite sure can never be surpassed. One such event occurred on Jura some years ago when an Otter brought an Octopus out of the sea in full view of my camera. As it bit into the Octopus a cloud of black ink was released and covered the Otter! I felt quite sure that if I filmed Otters for another fifty years no event would ever surpass that. I was wrong!

On Mull last week I was hidden amongst boulders watching a female Otter and her fully grown young fishing. Normally,if you are lucky, when she catches a large crab she will swim ashore to share it with her offspring This is what you are waiting for and eventually she began to make her way to shore with a large item of prey. As she emerged from the seaweed she was clutching a four foot Conger Eel! The eel was wriggling about and her jaws were closed behind its head as she struggled to pull it through the seaweed. This weeks gallery shows the series of photos I managed to take during this epic struggle. It now begs the question can this event ever be surpassed? Click here