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Here are two of the three otters I saw at Storms River

Ahhh...cute!!!

Awesome

Well its official guys, at the moment its not so hard to see CC otter in Kruger. Sorry need to drop down the mega tick status a little. The is an otter or possibly two that is currently regularly sited an Nkuhlu. The tea room being so close to the river. I have just returned from my Kruger trip and the otter was sighted every day fishing in the morning . Generally my advice is go there for breakfast around ten and focus your binocs downstream (east) Hopefully you will see them

However a trial to photo as the light is never right. However I will post in the near future. I was able to get a few shots

Thanks for that information Otterspotter . I will be in the area in October and Iwill most definately try it out.

My first & only CCO sighting in KNP (or anywhere else for that matter) was on my last trip in August 2009. I was on the H12 bridge over the Sabie when I noticed a whole agglomeration of water birds crowding up to some reeds in one of the channels under the bridge.

Next thing I knew, two CCO swam out of the reeds & cruised off down the river, darting under water occasionally, before disappearing round a bend in the direction of LS. The birds were eagerly following them & snapping up the creatures which were fleeing from the path of the CCO's.

Has any one else heard or seen this behaviour by birds? If I remember correctly there were Goliath Heron, Grey Heron, Saddle-bill Stork, Wooly-necked Stork, Great White Egret, Lesser Egret, Yellow-billed Egret & Squacco Heron. I have some pics somewhere, not great, but you can definitely recognose the CCO's for what they are even though they are only showing their head & the top of their backs as they swim away downriver. A lifer for me & one of the highlights of that trip.

There must have been 20-30 cars on the bridge over that time & not one stopped to see what I had spotted!

I might try dig the pics out sometime in the next few days.

Today at the bridge over the Sabie river,down from L.S. My first in KNP.

and a beautiful photo!

these two were seen from the bridge over the levhuvhu in july of this year.






they were chased out of the river by a croc and then both stood on the bank and it looked as though they were taunting the croc from the river bank

Brilliant, thank you Leachy. We saw them at Tsitsikamma but never in Kruger, maybe next time…

Thank you, Dinkybird, for the delightful photos. How big are these creatures?

Cape Clawless otter can be found around Simonstown naval base, nightly in Marina Da Gama as their chrips wake sleepy residents, Storms River, plenty to see at Tsisijkama and nightly along the Olphants river at the Bushmans cave campsite near Koekenaap. Seen them too at Lake Malawi and in Mozambique but never the Kruger.

Thanks guys for the info on where to find them in KNP.

Helo everyone!

Me and me mum went to the Kruger the weekend of the 24th of Feb and when you enter the Phabeni gate, on the S1 just after that dam turn off (can't remember the name, sorry ) there is a small river and by chance I had my first CCO sighting!
Pic not of that good quality...



It will be a sighting that I will never forget!

My first ever sighting of otters in the Kruger. They are very common around the highveld pans and dams, but to see one in Kruger was very sepcial.


IMG_8920 by DvdBergh, on Flickr

Nice sighting DotDan

Where in Kruger?