The Other Sibling

Featured Story: The Other Sibling

Two river otter pups looked up at their mother, perched atop the riverbank. The shyest sibling remained in the water. She wanted to follow. She, too, was full of curiosity, but it didn’t look safe. A quick scan confirmed a nearly vertical climb of 10 feet.

The most precocious pup immediately took up the challenge and tried to follow. His bravado had always served him well, but he quickly found himself on an unsteady slope. As chunks of sand slid into the river below, he turned to re-enter the water.

The other sibling, cautious and overlooked, the one that made pragmatic decisions, looked on from the safety of the water. Vindication felt good.

Field Notes

Clearly, I’m anthropomorphizing in the story above. I couldn’t possibly know if an otter pup felt vindicated, but I can state that after observing this family for a full summer, these two siblings are very different.

Siblings with distinct personalities aren’t unusual, especially for mammals. However, the personality differences present an interesting set of questions for each individual.

The more outgoing pup seems to get more one – on – one instruction from its mother. Is that because it is often the first pup to follow its mother’s lead, or is that because the mother expects this individual to be the first pup to leave the family? Do personality differences impact survival rates? Those are some questions I’ll look to answer when the next set of otter pups arrive in the spring and summer.

Updates

• I focused most of my attention this month on redesigning my website. The new homepage allows me to lead with an introduction of what I do and what viewers can expect, versus leading with a portfolio. Please check it out and share any feedback you have. Websites are always a work-in-progress endeavor.

• I have finally completed my project on elegant terns and expect to publish the project on my site shortly after the new year. After capturing over 30,000 photos, I struggled to find the right output for the project. I considered producing a book or a photo essay, but settled on writing a feature article, which I will add to a soon to be created “Features” section of my website.

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Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Until next time.