Cliff the Giant River Otter

Wild Library

beasts walked away. Kairi rolled into the water and mom quickly rushed to grab her. The fear I felt for losing my twin was immense, but as my mom brought my sister to land, and set her down, I saw Kairi's chest rise and fall. She was alive! I chirped in delight. She was alive! I saw her open her eyes, but before she could say something, mom said "Let's go home. i think we've had enough excitement for today." I definitely agreed with her. That night, when the sun was slowly setting, Kairi walked up to me and asked "tag?" we catapulted into the water, and then I knew that everything was normal once again.

Ps. Kairi wrote the 'The End' bit. She insisted.

"Where were you?" my mom, Marlowe, was eyeing me. "Playing tag?" I tried, "You know how Kairi is." "Yeah," she sighed, "You otter pups are so playful. Then again, most adults are very playful. Now go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day. For the pups, at least." "Good night mom." "Now, where is Kairi?" I shrugged. She chuckled and then slunk away. I looked up at the moon, and slowly crawled under the space I burrowed under my tree stump. I quickly fell asleep... I woke up the next morning, hearing all the otters around me chattering. 18 otters talking at the same time is not the most pleasant

of sounds. I opened one eye, then the other, and gave up. No one can fall asleep with all of this noise. I squinted my eyes as I emerged from my tunnel. Bright light shot into my eyes, but in a matter of seconds my eyes adjusted. I crept towards the group. "Morning mom, dad, grandpa, grand- wait what? Grandpa is awake? At this hour? Wow." "Big day, today. I remember my first swim. I nearly drowned. What a day." Grandpa sighed dreamily. "I can't even remember my first swim!" In otter years, 12 years old was a long time. It's like being 80! And I am only 1 year old. So compared to my grandpa, him being 12 and me being 1, I was so young. But in otter age, being 1 is already being quite old. I'm hungry. I can't wait to go down to the river so we can have breakfast. "Oh, morning Fisk!" I noticed him sauntering by. He hopped right over to me and said, "I'm hungryyyyyyyy," he dragged out the word. I laughed, "Mom, can we go now?" "Um, yes, but my question is, where are Coraline and Cordelia," she looked over at Fisk, "and Caspian?"

Dear readers, you have reached the end of the story. I would love to continue writing, but mom here keeps on insisting I go to bed, so I'm going to let my cousin Carmen, who lives in Singapore's River Safari take it from here. Goodbye! Okay, now I seriously think I should go. Mom is angry, in fact, I can see her frowning from the other side of our territory! Cliff - out.

Hellooooo! I am Carmen, and as Cliff mentioned above, I live at the Singapore River Safari, so come visit me. In the next page, I'm going to share with you my otter identification cards, soooo... FLIP THE PAGE!

By Sofia Moscatelli Canadian International School&#160;

"Caspian is getting ready. He's been grooming himself for over an hour," Fisk replied, "He should be done soon. I hope. I'm starving..." "In the mean time," my mom turned to me, "let's start going down to the river. I'm going to go get Marissa, Lana, and Kairi," she wandered off. After about 10 minutes of rounding my sisters, we could finally walk down to the river. By then, everyone was already there. As soon as we reached there, Adira, Caspian's mom, had pushed Caspian into the water. Caspian struggled to stay afloat, so Fisk dove right into the water after him, as Adira followed. When I had my first swim, my sisters Lana and Marissa helped teach Kairi and I. Because otters are social creatures, swimming lessons don't usually have one coach. They have many. Usually it was mom and sisters who taught me. Dad was usually eating. In most otter families, the mom is usually the boss, and dad is either sleeping or eating, depending the situation. Sedna rolled Coraline and Cordelia into the water, and soon

after that, all of the otters were splashing around in the river. I dove underwater. So much catfish, perch, and characin surrounded me. I dove strait for the catfish, and caught it easily. Since catfish were slow swimmers, they were usually on the top of the menu, though occasionally, I also ate small snakes, caimans, and crustaceans. I swam over to my dad, who seemed to be on his third catfish or whatever. We happily munched our catfish, and then we went back for more. It seemed like an amazing day, until I was playing tag with Kairi. We were near the river banks, and a giant jaw quickly grabbed my sister and pulled her out of the water. Before my eyes, I saw two huge jaguars, one of them holding my sister in her jaws. I retreated, but all the otters were swimming around me. I was at the back of the pack, and all the otters started jumping up and down in the water, splashing water here and there, and making huge racket. The jaguar, unsure of what was going on dropped Kairi, and frantically, the two mighty, powerful 

Now Cliff told me I need to add these things called ceetaytionies, or something, but now that I look at what Cliff wrote, I think I spelled it wrong, so cross that out. Yeah, that makes more sense now. And Cliff sent me all of these nonsensical words and told me to put them in my citations page, so, copy, paste and there! Voila: My meaningless sentences that Cliff calls citations! Even though I have no idea what those are, I still know how to do copy and paste, even though I'm an otter. A giant river otter to be exact!

Ceetaytionies Citations Dunnell, Tony. Giant River Otter. South American Vacations, 20 Mar. 2019, www.savacations.com/giant-river-otters-amazon-rainforest/. Accessed 2 Jan.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2021.&nbsp; Asian Small Clawed Otter. Know Your Meme, knowyourmeme.com/photos/1673255-animals.&nbsp; Van der Kruijssen, Jouko. River Otter. ThoughtCo., 17 July 2019, www.thoughtco.com/river-otter-facts-4692837. Accessed 2 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; Eurasian Otter. About Me, 23 Sept. 2014, 456163356269205089.weebly.com/blog/about-me. Accessed 2 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; Mohamed and Wilting, Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry Department. Hairy Nosed Otter. National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/7/100726-hairy-nosed-otter-borneo-camera-trap-deramakot-science-pictures/. Accessed 2 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; Johns, Phillip. Smooth Coated Otter. BFM: The Business Station, 21 Nov. 2016, www.bfm.my/podcast/the-bigger-picture/earth-matters/dr-philip-johns-smooth-coated-otters-singapore. Accessed 2 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; Sea Otter. Wikipedia, 12 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_otter. Accessed 2 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; "Asian Small-Clawed Otter." WRS, www.wrs.com.sg/en/singapore-zoo/ animals-and-zones/asian-small-clawed-otter.html. Accessed 3 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.&nbsp; nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/asian-small-clawed-otter. Accessed 3 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; "North American River Otter." Wikipedia, 25 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_river_otter. Accessed 3 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; "Eurasian Otter." Wikipedia, 23 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_otter. Accessed 3 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; "Hairy-Nosed Otter." Wikipedia, 2 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairy-nosed_otter. Accessed 3 Jan. 2021.&nbsp; "Smooth-Coated Otter." Wikipedia, 3 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth-coated_otter. Accessed 3 Jan. 2021.&nbsp;

Carlos, get out of my book! Cliff left me to write it!

Is Carlos seriously standing ON the glass tunnel?

Look at me, gliding over the water's surface so perfectly!

It was a nice sunny day, the sky clear blue, clouds hanging over my snout, creating shade... I was relaxing on a rock, my whole clan chilling after a long day of catching fish. Tomorrow was going to be Caspian, Coraline, and Cordelia's first swim. Caspian is Fisk's, my best friend's, brother, and Coraline and Cordelia were twins. Tomorrow, the new pups could learn what it is like to be able to swim, catch fish, learn to be like the older kids... My thoughts were interrupted. I opened my eyes to find my twin sister, Kairi, looming over my face. "What do you want?" I grunted. I was not up for anything requiring physical exhaustion. "Tag? Can we play tag?" she hopefully asked. I raised an eyebrow, or, where I suppose I would have eyebrows. "I guess...you're it!" I slid down the rock, catapulting myself in the water. I paused, looking around for Kairi... I heard a splash in the water near me, so I dived deeper into the water, paddling as fast

as I could, my ears and nostrils closed, the water moving along my water resistant fur. Yup, that's right. My ears and nostrils close in water, and I have water resistant fur. Now that I'm talking about weird giant otter facts, I am also related to weasels. How an aquatic creature can be related to a weasel, I have no idea. Then again, Mother Nature has made some pretty questionable choices... I was off guard and in no time my sister had caught up to me and smacked her clawed paw on my shoulder. She caught me by surprise, so I used my paws as a paddle to turn away. Of course, my sister found humour in that and rose to the water. I followed after her. "Tag! You're it!" I rushed after her, and after spending the rest of the day playing, it was soon time for bed. Barbeau, my 12 year old grandpa was already asleep, but then again, he was either eating his regular 4 kilos a day, eyeing the playful otters, or engaging in his favourite activity, sleeping.

This is my family, the Ottertons, and the other families: the Rivieras, and the Oysterlaces.

When you think of an otter, you usually think of the fluffy little otter who lies down on the water's surface, casually crashing a stone against their oyster. That, my dear friends is the classic sea otter. I, Cliff, am not an Eurasian otter. Nor am I a river otter, or the Asian small clawed otter. I live in the Amazon river. Use this website to try finding the Amazon river.

<a href="https://www.otter.org/public/OtterMap.aspx">Click on this link to access the web page.</a> Click on different points to find out who lives there.

Click on the location markers and find the Amazon to see which furry little otter calls the Amazon home.

I am Cliff, the giant river otter. If you are having troubles finding my home sweet home, I live right here:

You may be wondering what otters you would see in Singapore, if they aren't giant river otters. Other than in the Singapore Zoo, you would only find the smooth coated and the small clawed otters. 

So if you see an otter while walking around Singapore, don't automatically assume it is the giant river otter. That would be a big mistake. Anysqueak, turn the page of this carefully written book by me to find out what happened just last week...

Just stop it with the dramatic effects...

"Giant Otter." National Geographic, 10 Mar. 2011. National Geographic, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.google.com.sg/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;animals/mammals/g/giant-otter. Accessed 19 Nov. 2020. "Giant Otter." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_otter. Accessed 5 Dec. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2020. "Giant River Otter Facts." CritterFacts, critterfacts.com/critterfacts-archive/ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;mammal/critter-of-the-week-20-giant-river-otter/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2020. "Jaguars Vs. Giant Otters: Who Will Win?" National Geographic, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/00000163-02a5-d229-a9e3-cab705e90000. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Accessed 5 Dec. 2020. Otter. Pinterest, www.pinterest.com/cristiacastle/ollie-the-otter/. Accessed 18 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Nov. 2020. "Otter Family Fight for Survival against Jaguar Attack." Youtube, 11 Feb. 2020, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyjivGqC_x0. Accessed 5 Dec. 2020. Sleeping Giant River Otter. Pinterest, www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;850617448351486758/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2020. "Two Hungry Jaguars Are No Match for This Plucky Otter." National Geographic, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/04/ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;jaguars-giant-otters-animals-brazil-predators/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2020. "World of Otters." IOSF, www.otter.org/public/OtterMap.aspx. Accessed 22 Dec. 2020.

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