A silly otter pup got separated from its family and lost its way on Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Kallang Basin.

This was after a pair of two-and-a-half-month-old pups were engrossed nibbling on fish as their elder siblings left them alone and moved away.

The four otters are from the Bishan family of 13 otters.

Videos and photos of the otter pups are provided by otter-watcher, Nick Soo, who witnessed the incident.

Other otter watchers who were present and witnessed the scene, were surprised at the abandonment as it was an unusual thing for the social creatures to do.

This was so as the two pups finally realised they were alone and tried to catch up.

One of them eventually reunited with its family, but the remaining one wandered off and was later spotted in the water by Soo.

Otter-watchers in Singapore, who keep watch on the otters daily, then staged a late-night rescue to reunite the pup with its family.

A group of 15 of them participated in the rescue.

A young pup left alone in the wild would have a hard time surviving, as it might be eaten by predators and did not have the ability to hunt alone. It could also exhaust itself to death searching for its family.

Some of the otter-watchers called up at the last minute to help, brought along torch lights and even a laundry basket and a blanket to trap the baby otter, which was eventually caught, but was getting skittish and did not allow people to get too close.

The otter was returned to its family at about 9.30pm at the holt at an undisclosed location.

The otter-watchers checked on the pups the next morning and confirmed that the lost one was with its parents.

This is the second rescue attempt by the otter-watchers in Singapore.

In May 2016, a six-week-old smooth-coated otter pup, Toby, nearly drowned after it fell off a ledge into a canal near Fort Road.

It was reunited with its family 10 days later with the help of the otter-watching community in Singapore.

There are about 50 smooth-coated otters in Singapore

They returned to Singapore in 1998 after having been thought to have gone extinct here.

Related article:

6-week-old otter pup ZooToby feeling alright again thanks to humans at Wildlife Reserves Singapore

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