Otters in Loch Ness

Otters do live around Loch Ness, but they are rarely seen by most people as they tend to go about their business at dawn and dusk. In the 1930's at the start of the "monster" story many experts proposed otters as the cause of many sightings. The typical sightings of the 1930's do not fit too well with otter behaviour, however, and the suggestions that the Surgeon's Photograph shows "an otter in the act of diving" are not well founded. There are, in any case, much better explanations for that picture!

Here are a couple of my own otter clips - you can decide for yourselves how "monstrous" they look.