31st May World Otter Day

 

World Otter Day occurs on the last Wednesday of May, which is May 31st this year. The sea otter has a whole week, Sea Otter Awareness Week. It  takes place during the last full week of September to celebrate and inspire deeper awareness of these marine mammals.

World Otter Day brings all otter species to the attention of many people. It focuses on raising awareness about how important otters are and also highlights the threats that they face. There are certain issues faced by otters that some people are largely unaware of, such as the huge trade in these animals for pets and fur.  

There are 13 species of otter, and all of them are listed in the IUCN Red List.

Otters have been highly successful in making their habitats in oceans, lakes, rivers and wetlands around the world. They can be found from North to South America, Africa to Asia, and all across Europe. However, there are no otters in Australia unless they are at a zoo. At Taronga Western Plains Zoo there is a family of  Asian Small-clawed Otters which are the smallest of the 13 otter species. Small-clawed Otters are best known for their dexterity which means they are good at using their hands. The incomplete webbing between their fingers gives them a great range of motion and they hunt for food using their hands rather than their mouths like other species.

At high school Ring of Bright Water  was an English class text and it certainly made me fascinated with both otters and Scotland. Whenever I'm at a zoo outside of Australia they are the first animal I look for on the zoo directory.

Otters are the subject focus for a lot of children's books. Many make the word 'otter' playfully say or mean something else, such as here in these titles:

• I Love You Like No Otter by Rose Rossner (I Love You like No Other)

• Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller (Do Unto Others)

• Otter Chaos by Michael Broad (Utter Chaos)

There is a series of picture books and easy readers by Sam Garton

Of course there are other picture books as well.

see my Pinterest page for suggestions. Some are no longer available new but search in the library.

There are a large number of short novels

And of course there are information books:

Traditional nonfiction:

Narrative nonfiction:

24th October Meilo So

Meilo So is Hong Kong born Chinese, but she was educated and lives in Britain. She has illustrated many picture books, including folktales, poetry and original stories. A favourite in the library is Gobble, Gobble, Slip, Slop: The Tale of a Very Greedy Cat which is a retelling of an Indian folktale. In it a greedy tabby cat swallows a parrot, an old woman, a farmer and donkey and then all in the sultan's wedding procession. The cat gets fatter and fatter just like it does in the Danish folktale, The Fat Cat, until two crabs end the greed and just as in the Jack Kent version all the victims emerge from the cat's stomach unscathed. Certainly it is a preposterous story, but the children love the silliness and joining in with the repetitive refrain. I also particularly like Wishbones which is a Chinese version of Cinderella where the bones of a fish have magical qualities. It is written by Barbara Ker Wilson.