THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 27, 2017 at 16:35 JST
Editor's note: This is part of a series of videos offering an up-close perspective on the animal kingdom. A special 360-degree video camera system was set up in zoos and other facilities to show how the animals view their world as they interact.
Also visit our special 360-DEGREE LIVES page (http://t.asahi.com/360lives), where you can watch all the previous videos.
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A whole otter love (and fun) is on display at Tokiwa Zoo these days.
Asian small-clawed otter quadruplets arrived on the scene at the zoo last October, the first ever born at the wildlife park in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
At just 2 months old in this video, the otter pups measure about 20 centimeters.
Their mother, Rin, and father, Bon, were seen fooling around in an exhibition room as we prepared for shooting. Pushing and rolling a 3-kilogram water container weighing with their noses, the animals looked pretty powerful for their small size.
And all members of the otter family were certainly inquisitive. The adults and pups began sniffing the 360-degree hemisphere video camera mounted on a board, which was weighed down at the edges with heavy objects and bedded down with a hemp sack.
But the weights were shifted out of place when the otters playfully dragged around the sack. One of the parents stuck its nose under the board and lifted it up, forcing our shooting session to start over.
When we were preparing for a retake, we found the whole otter family had disappeared.
“They seem to have fallen asleep. I think they were exhausted from playing,” zoo attendant Naoko Mori, 30, said, referring to the sack ... which was ... wiggling.
According to Mori, Asian small-clawed otters inhabit rivers and lakes in southern India, Southeast Asia and elsewhere. They can swim fast underwater utilizing their webbed paws. A member of the weasel family, they feed on fish, crabs, crayfish and frogs. They also eat shellfish after crushing the shells with their strong teeth.
(This article was written by Nozomi Ozaki and Toshiyuki Takeya.)
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