Time and Place: The Otters of Waskesiu

This title is an acquisition.

A family of river otters keeps a year round watch on events at the narrows of Lake Waskesiu, Saskatchewan. Their home is under a boat dock, and from the boardwalk above, we can hear the sounds of eating, preening and otter arguments over scraps of food. Our underwater cameras catch them coming and going from the dock, showing their graceful form as swimmers. It is springtime now, and the lake is especially busy with the comings and goings of birds and animals. The ever-curious otters pop up through widening holes in the lake ice. From here, they watch a wolf hunt a deer across the ice, into the woods and back out onto the lake... and eventually take it down. A coyote and fox set aside traditional animosities and play a game of tag along the shoreline. The otters are drawn into the action when they pull their catch of fish to the surface of the lake to munch in the sunshine, and have to escape the talons of a marauding eagle, and chase away a mooching fox. The otter victory celebration is a joy to behold. Otters are playful creatures. We watch as they frolic in snow banks and hold a comical running, slipping, sliding three-way race over the lake ice, in this Time & Place.