The American Trail is one of the newest and coolest exhibit areas at the National Zoo, highlighting North American wildlife, including the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis), that I featured in an earlier post, and the North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis), pictured here.
When I arrived, the zookeepers were spreading food all throughout the area inhabited by two otters. It was a lot of fun to watch the otters scurrying about, searching for the food. They were incredibly energetic and curious (and difficult to capture in a photo).
This is my favorite shot, because I think that it does a good job of expressing some of the otter’s essential traits.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
very cute, love the whiskers..
Super cute otter!
Aww, how cute! I love animals, and this one is adorable. I want to swim with him!
I am not sure the zoo would like that–you might have to find one in the wild that would go swimming with you.
Haha I was kidding. 🙂
I’ve always wanted to find an otter family in the wild, but haven’t seen any yet.
I too have been looking. I have heard rumors about an otter having been previously present at one of the place I frequent, but have not seen one in the wild. For the moment, I have to satisfy myself with the ones in the zoo. Some may think it is “cheating” to photograph animals in a zoo, but I find it an interesting challenge and I certainly can’t afford to visit the native habitats of some of the animals that I see at the zoo.
as always you had me at the title!
Otters are hard to capture on camera. There is a family of otters that lives in a small stream near me- but everytime I go there with my camera, they don’t come out. My mother- who has a simple point & shoot camera- has a few distant photos, but we’re still determined that one day we’ll get some good shots. (it could be that mom walks before 7am, and I am still in bed, or at best home drinking my coffee at that time!)
As for photographing animals at a zoo vs native habitat…. I’m not sure an African safari is ever in my budget- so, like you, some animals will only be seen in zoos.
What a lovely photograph… he looks so inquisitive. I love the this capture.
Bright little fellow there!
Oh my world, that is the cutest otter ever!!! 😀 Good picture and title!
Thanks. Bad puns and word plays are unavoidable with me. I had so much fun watching the otters and was pleasantly surprised to get a good photo of one.