An Otter in Penang

A few weeks ago my father arrived to stay with us for a few weeks.  Because it is smaller and closer to our home than KL he flew into Penang airport.  We decided to make the most of it and rented an apartment (via airBNB) in Georgetown, the capital of Penang state and on Pulau Pinang island.  Georgetown was the historic centre of British trade in the region for a period of time in the 19^th Century, superseding Melaka but losing out, in the end, to Singapore.  The centre of Georgetown is a protected UNESCO world heritage site and full of wonderful old Chinese shop houses side by side with some gems from the colonial era. All in all a place to enjoy culture not wildlife.

Gurney Drive in Georgetown, not where you would
expect to enjoy a wildlife encounter!

Walking along the seafront one morning we came across a beautiful female sea-otter.  We noticed her sitting quite comfortably on some rocks no more than 5 meters from the pavement.  We did not try to get any closer for fear of scaring her  and did not even try to change the lenses or even settings on the camera for fear of losing her.  We need not have worried, she was quite happy for us to take some pictures of our encounter and stayed with us for about 5 minutes before disappearing off into the sea to hunt for fish.

An otter enjoying the colonial sites of Penang

She was completely relaxed, talking to her friend Mr. Crow

She played around on the rocks for a while

Before swimming off in search of some fish

Posted on the Animal Tales linky hosted by Eco-Gites of Lenault

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