Wednesday 7 August 2013

Otter VS Conga Eel: the fight to the death on Applecross


We spent over an hour watching this brave little otter battle a conga eel almost twice its own size and girth. It was unfortunately just a little bit too far away for my lens to capture any decent images but these snaps at least show something of the efforts involved. There were at least five occasions where the otter heaved, pulled, pushed the eel half onto land only for the pair of them to splash right back into the water again when the eel's tail curled up and yanked them off the seaweed. In the end the otter won out and began stripping the skin off the head of the eel and eating that. A Great Black Backed Gull hung around patiently for most of the time, hoping to share in the prize but offering no help to the capture! Very exciting stuff and all viewed from the comfort of Toscaig Pier on Applecross as opposed to our usual viewing gallery of a quickly filling tidal rock pool amongst the seaweed of some Mull shore line. We had a great time on Otter(oops- Outer) Hebrides beginning with 5 days at Applecross and ending with 5 days on Mull.