Otterly Unbelievable

Otters simply seem to have more fun than we do.   These playful mammals were having a grand ole time in the sunshine at Florida's Homosassa Springs State Park today, delightfully oblivious to the fact that they happened to be in captivity while innumerable visitors snapped photographs of them nearly every day of the year:

Otters hunt at night for fish, frogs, crabs, and any other tasty things that happen to be crawling or swimming in nearby waters.  Because of their nocturnal feeding habits, when we see them during the day, they are indulging in other more important things in life like playing with their Otterly Marvelous friends:

While the North American River Otter used to be endangered because its fur was in hot demand, Americans have recovered from such barbaric hunting behaviors and river otter populations are in many places restored and in some over-abundant:

Unfortunately, river otters are highly sensitive to environmental pollution and their long term survival in North America remains uncertain.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching otters play.  They are a good reminder of how I should be spending more of my time.   I'm sure it's no coincidence that we've never seen a happy otter seated at a computer, pounding away at MS Word or surfing the world wide web.  And those webbed feet may be the terrific for swimming, but they will never be good for texting or tweeting.