Tour Guide, Vaal River, South Africa
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RING OF BRIGHT WATER
The heat of a midsummer dawn steamed the surface of the Vaal River. An otter was sunning himself on one of our makeshift bridges across the rocky side channel, his wet fur glistening as he swivelled to look at me. The sun had risen before 5am and was already beating a relentless pulse in a clear sky. Over the channel, the reeds and trees on the island dripped with dew.
The animal was a Cape clawless otter. At a distance of about five metres from where I stood, he looked about the size of a young boxer dog. He was a large male with a white throat and a face that confonted me with the typical cheeky expression of his breed. After a thoughtful pause he twisted smoothly off the bridge and slid into the murky Vaal.
This fellow was a big specimen of the animal that populates African rivers, lakes, and ocean estuaries from South Africa to Ethiopia, Aonyx Capensis. He would use his strong hands – clawless but with fingernails – to catch crabs, insects and, rarely, fish. His cousins, the smaller and very agile spotted-necked otters, Lutra maculicollis, also inhabited our neck of the river and spent most of their time in and under the water fishing, usually at night.
Around his raised head as he swam the ripples streamed away in his wake. I was surprised: instead of fleeing underwater into the reeds, or away towards his holt, or den, hidden in the muddy bank somewhere, he weaved aggressively towards me making a sort of exasperated hissing sound as if to say - Why did you disturb me? I had never seen an otter this close, and for a moment nearly retreated because he looked as if he meant business.
A few moments later he emerged casually on a humpbacked rock about 10 metres away and proceeded to clean his fingernails of the remnants of last night’s crab feast. I watched him for minutes before once again he slipped away and vanished for good.
- Graeme Addison