My wife pinged me from the river trail where she was walking Freya to send me this: Otters!

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@ranjit @artcollisions I love sea cows!! 🥹

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@ranjit @artcollisions I have some learn-to-draw books I love by Joy Sikorski, which taught me to draw a manatee as basically a little rounded hump above the water. It was labeled, "If this you see, / it's probably / a manatee," which is what I think whenever I see one (only ever in photos or once in an aquarium).

[artcollisions@vis.social]

@ranjit @handmade_ghost I think you have to go out West?

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@artcollisions @ranjit You can find river otters on either coast of the US!

[nathanlovestrees@disabled.social]

@handmade_ghost @artcollisions @ranjit in the middle too!

[ranjit@friend.camp]

@handmade_ghost @artcollisions it's been a while but what i remember seeing is basically this (imagine the dark blur moving to the left)

[ranjit@friend.camp]

@nathanlovestrees @handmade_ghost @artcollisions the zoo in the park near me has otters! I should go visit them soon.

[gannet@sunny.garden]

@artcollisions @ranjit @handmade_ghost

Spouse and I went to a local beaver pond in NC a few years ago, and there were two river otters there! I haven’t seen them since, but it was so cool.

[superball@norcal.social]

@handmade_ghost
That looks a lot like the canal above my parents’ place—vegetation and everything! No otters in it, though.

[nathanlovestrees@disabled.social]

@ranjit @handmade_ghost @artcollisions if you’re ever in Ohio you can see them inside and outside of zoos!

https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/the-river-otter-s-remarkable-recovery-in-ohio/

[ranjit@friend.camp]

@nathanlovestrees @handmade_ghost @artcollisions i would like to see them outside someday!

[artcollisions@vis.social]

@nathanlovestrees @ranjit @handmade_ghost Ooooh, I didn't know that!

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@nathanlovestrees @ranjit @artcollisions wooooot!!

[artcollisions@vis.social]

@gannet @ranjit @handmade_ghost well, that's fun!

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@ranjit @artcollisions I love that!! The one I saw in an aquarium was rising slowly to the top of the tank and then falling slowly back like a hot air balloon (a hot air balloon browsing on little heads of lettuce).

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@gannet @artcollisions @ranjit They have such wonderful energy. 🥹

[ranjit@friend.camp]

@handmade_ghost @artcollisions (well now i want someone who can draw better than me to draw a hot air balloon browsing on lettuce)

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@superball It's such a classic winter canal look!

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@ranjit @artcollisions 👀🤞

[nathanlovestrees@disabled.social]

@handmade_ghost @ranjit @artcollisions I’ve also seen them in WV and similar efforts are underway there and lots of other places. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some wild ones nearer than you think!