Posted by Brydon Thomason on Wednesday 24th July 2013 | News, Otters

Wow, where does the time go?! It is now nearly two months since we initiated and organised a ‘Sponsored Otter Search’ to raise money to support the International Otter Awareness day, on the 29th May, organised by the International Otter Survival Fund.

A combination of our busiest season to date and collecting and transferring sponsorship money has meant that we are only now posting news on this fun and exciting event back in May. We were amazed and genuinely delighted at the response and support we had with our Sponsored Otter search when between the three of us; myself, Gary Bell and Richard Shucksmith we saw 25 otters.

In total we raised £800 and would like to thank each and for their generosity in supporting us through donation/sponsorship.

This money we raised for ‘Otter Awareness Day’ is being used to repair and replace some of the facility on Skye where rehabilitated otter cubs are looked after and the larger moorland pens they are moved to when older and more independent as part of their journey to eventual release. They are in them for several months and can be very destructive! They have experienced the added problem recently of a wild otter trying to dig his way into the pens!

As well as this our annual ‘corporate sponsorship’ funds are channelled into the great education work the IOSF do (Paul and Grace go to schools, clubs, societies etc to give talks about otters to raise awareness).

They are also working at the moment on setting up a UK wide alliance to bring all the otter groups together under one umbrella so that we have a degree of national coordination with standardised surveying methods etc. Money raised from our standard adoptions (rather than corporate) tends to go straight towards the care of the otters at the sanctuary.

For more information on the IOSF please visit http://www.otter.org/ to find out how you can help.