Explore my relationship with food, NaPoWriMo? Surely you mean explore an otter’s relationship with food? But there are so many species (13), and they all eat slightly different things – should I write about Japanese otters keeping paddy fields free of crayfish? Or giant Amazonian otters being slowly poisoned by mercury from gold ore extraction accumulated in the livers of their favourite fish? Maybe later in the month. For now I am mostly distracted by a little Winnie-the-Pooh-esque ditty from the fabulous sea otter, those masters of the tummy buffet. They need to eat a quarter of their body weight every day to keep them warm in the seas off northern California. And they love abalone.
The Song Of The Feeding Sea Otter
Floating along on my own-e-o,
Smashing my abalone-e-o,
On my smashing stone-e-o,
I go whack! whack! whack!
Don’t ever cook it with po-tay-ter,
Celery, soy sauce, or to-may-ter,
Or gratinize it with a cheese gray-ter,
I just knock! it! back!
Rest assured that if I hear any more verses of this super-smashing happy feeding song, I will add them here.
Kirsten Luckins 