In the brightness of morning, an otter can be seen twirling between the lough’s surface and the depths of the water’s edge. It rises to the surface to breath the morning air and roll onto its back, then dives beneath (for up to four minutes!) to hunt for fish.

These playful creatures seem naturally designed for romping around in shallower waters with sleek, slender bodies that roll and turn quickly through different dynamic water features. They are extremely strong swimmers, with large lung capacities and the ability to reduce oxygen demands via slowing down their heart rate. Unlike their Pacific Ocean counterpart, the sea otter, river otters do not like to spend much time on their backs, but instead tumble over into the water to either make a second attempt at prey or move back towards their holt with their catch. While frolicking in the water with others, they will often make a loud chirping noise, while hunting calls for a flute-like whistle.

Even though the otter has such a great talent at swimming, it actually is a very terrestrial animal, taking all its prey ashore to eat and share with cubs. Females choose rocky nooks or root holds to build a holt with an underground entrance. This is where they rear their two to three cubs, which are taught to swim 12 weeks after birth. Males’ inclinations are territorial, and often will have two or more partner females within their territory, which they mark with dark, fishy droppings.

River otters will inhabit coasts, rivers and lakes, but prefer calmer water with vegetation or landscape cover. In the British Isles, otters are very rare, and usually found in Scotland. For example: in the twelve years Dr. Trowbridge has worked at Lough Hyne, she has only witnessed an otter twice; once was the sighting just yesterday morning. The otter is protected in the British Isles, but pollution, road casualties, and habitat loss continue to diminish populations.

Cowries are something we expect to find in tropical and subtropical waters, but Lough Hyne is home to a species of cold-water cowrie that can be very surprising to an unsuspecting biologist. 

The European Cowrie is found along the entire coastline of Ireland, which is their northern habitat range, and are present southward to the Mediterranean. We were thrilled to encounter Trivia during our under-rock intertidal survey of the eastern shore of Lough Hyne. We found more cowries under rocks on the south shore near the historical Renouf Lab yesterday morning. 

Cowries are molluscs related to snails and have a soft body inside a beautiful rounded shell. Trivia’s shell is ribbed with pink and white stripes, and a dark-spotted mantle wraps around the edges of the shell.

When disturbed, the cowrie will pull the mantle and other soft tissues completely inside the shell.    

Trivia feeds on colonial ascidians (sea squirts) which commonly populate intertidal rocks in Lough Hyne.