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Kirikou was the biggest challenge we have
faced as far as looking after otters is concerned.
A two month old female otter cub, Kirikou arrived on Christmas Eve 2008
straight from Lerwick vet via SSPCA officer Ron Patterson. She had lost
the use of her back legs after being picked up by a dog on the isle of
Bressay, which damaged her nerves.
The first question was whether or not we should keep her, as even if she
recovered the use of her legs it was obvious we wouldn’t be able to
release her back into the wild.
We contacted the experts: Grace Yoxon, of the International Otter
Survival Fund, on Skye, and Carol Heap, who runs the Chestnut Centre in
Derbyshire, where they look after several species of otter. Carol, who
has had 30 years experience, said: “Whatever you do, don’t give up yet!”
She said they had several otters which had fully recovered from such
experiences and led a quality life in captivity, taking part in
educational and breeding programmes. She explained that cerebral nerves
can regenerate, but that it could take weeks or months of intensive
care.
Kirikou was a great character and full of enthusiasm for life, which
left us feeling we had no alternative but to do our best for her. She
showed signs of improvement very quickly, but it was very much a case of
two steps forward, one step back.
We bathed her several times a day (water therapy), manipulated and
massaged her legs and tail and encouraged her to use her back legs
rather than drag them. It was as if she had forgotten that she even had
back legs, so we had to constantly remind her that they were there. We
realised that this process was going to take a long time.
By April Kirikou was thriving as an otter, but her legs were only
showing slight improvement and we were becoming concerned about the
speed of her recovery. At this point we heard of and contacted animal
osteopath Tony Nevin, who runs Zoo-Ost Ltd, in Gloucestershire, and has
worked with all kinds of animals and birds, including badgers, which
belong to the same mustalid family as otters, polecats and ferrets.
Tony arrived in Shetland and gave us a weekend crash course in touch
therapy. By the time he left he was of the opinion that we could restore
her to full mobility with a few weeks of intensive care, so we embarked
on just that.
The first three weeks showed very encouraging signs, but then once again
the improvement slowed down. She needed something new to stimulate
her…why not the great outdoors?
In May volunteers from the local Scottish Natural Heritage office helped
to sink a redundant Jacuzzi in our outdoor otter pen, complete with
drainage, and Kirikou moved outside. She loved it and seemed to give her
a real boost. She became an adolescent almost overnight.
This was both good and bad. On the one hand she was now more
independent, but on the other hand we could no longer give her any hands
on therapy. As it was we had already managed to handle her for much
longer than anyone thought would have been possible. All we could do now
was use our trusty children’s hockey stick, renamed an “otter spatula”
by Tony Nevin, to nudge her back legs to remind her to use them.
We did not know what the future held. We thought we might just have to
keep her in captivity and see how she fared, as she was not likely ever
to be fit enough to take part in a breeding programme.
In the end the decision was taken out of our hands. We took a week’s
holiday in July and the day before we returned she died of an infection.
Having worked with her so intensively for such a long time we were
obviously devastated, but we learned more about otters from looking
after Kirikou than we could ever have dreamed. She also highlighted the
need for us to raise funds to create much better facilities here at
Hillswick for any future otters.
Throughout Kirikou’s time with us, BBC wildlife presenter Simon King
came to visit us as part of his new TV series about Shetland. Simon has
had a lot to do with otters over the years and he really took Kirikou to
heart. His help, advice and encouragement meant a lot to us…especially
when we wondered what on earth we were doing (which did happen at
times).
For their help with Kirikou, we would like to thank the Redman family;
Lerwick vets; Ron Patterson and the SSPCA; Grace Yoxon; Carol Heap;
Bunchy Casey; Ross Flett; Tony Nevin; Simon, Marguerite and Savannah
King; SNH Shetland; Shetland Scrapstore; John Campbell; Shetland
Wildlife Fund; SOTEAG; and everyone who sent a donation for Kirikou and
new otter facilities.
Please click
here to view the story of Kirikou from our archives
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