3 September 2014

Here’s something I learned by being fooled:  River otters can sound like birds.

I found this out in Belfast, Maine one summer when my husband and I walked across the footbridge in the evening.  The Passagassawakeag River was beautiful at sunset as the birds gathered to roost and a family of river otters swam at the Belfast shore.

We were on the other side of the bridge when I heard a loud bird chirping.  What bird was that?  Intrigued, I approached the sound to find out.

For the life of me I could not find any bird.  The voice echoed under the bridge but no songbird was down there.  Finally I realized the sound came from the otters. They were whistling to each other.

This recording from the University of Utah’s streaming library is what they sounded like:

Who knew that river otters could sound like birds?!

(photo by David Stanley via Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)