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Here they are the starlets of the river world, or perhaps I should say the otterlets of the river world. These are the showstoppers, rivaling wolves, grizzlies, combative bulls, any attraction you want to put up against them. I hesitate to say this only because I don’t want to tarnish the good name of otters but they’re the Kardashians of the river ways. Beautiful, arrogant, aware of every lens pointed at them, they’re Yellowstone’s answer to Hollywood’s glamour.

When the Otters appear everything else stops. They command your attention from the moment of their arrival to when the last gleaming flash of their glistening bodies disappear down stream. They are probably one of the most photogenic animals you can see in the park and one of the most elusive. I have been to Yellowstone more times than I can remember and I have only been fortunate enough to encounter them for an extended period, three times over a dozen years. It’s not that they’re rare, because they’re certainly not, they’re just one of those animals that you have to luck onto. Some people walk into the park, trip over an otter and say “Oh look at that” and head for the shops at Old Faithful. Others have never seen them in all their visits.

On this particular shoot I was following along the Madison river when I noticed a photographer friend I hadn’t seen in a couple of years standing near the river looking upstream. I stopped and talked to him and he told me that otters had been seen at 7 mile bridge and he thought they might show up again. No sooner had he said that when we heard their cries upriver as they talked to each other and traveled downstream towards us. I was lucky enough to have the correct lens on my camera as they came into view, playing, chasing each other, diving for fish, cavorting like kids just out of school. Above 7 mile bridge is an area we call the log jam for obvious reasons and if there are any otters around that’s where you’ll find them. That’s where this shot was taken and several hundred more in fact as they spent the better part of an hour swimming through the snags, climbing over them, resting, and generally showing us what otters do for a living.

When I stopped to talk to my friend I had only intended to be there a few moments so I had neglected to turn off my truck. However when you encounter an opportunity to spend quality time with the Kardashians, I mean otters you can not lose focus for a second. These are pictures that you’ll never be able to get again so it’s now or never. The cardinal rule for wildlife photographers is “Shoot it when you see it”, and that’s what we did. As the otters moved downstream we followed, shooting as we went until we had traveled a good mile or more from the initial meeting. When I had time to think I wondered if I would have a truck, not to mention all the rest of my gear when I got back, but in for a penny in for a pound.

Finally the otters had had enough of us and decided to ditch these otterarazzi’s and so they did, leaving us to trudge back to our starting point, two grown men giddy as school girls over the incredible experience we’d just had, carrying our gear, me wondering how I was going to explain to the insurance company that someone had stolen my truck with all my gear in it just because I left it unlocked and running, and it wasn’t my fault because there were these otters, see…. and my friend making comments like “Why didn’t you shut it off when you got out?” and “I always shut mine off”, etc. until I had visions of making him otter bait but I shouldn’t have worried, this was Yellowstone.

When we got back there it was just like I left it, still running but nearly out of gas, everything in place, and thanking the powers that be for not punishing me for the ecological catastrophe I had caused by allowing all the those hydrocarbons to escape, I stowed my gear. I did shut off my truck then because I needed a moment to settle down and reflect on what had just happened. I had just spent over two hours doing what I love most in the world and I had three, count ’em three, compact flash cards filled with otter pictures. My truck didn’t get stolen, my gear was safe, the EPA didn’t have a warrant working for my arrest, it had been a glorious day. To this day that experience remains at the very top of my Yellowstone memories. It is one of those times that can never be recreated.

Even though I have shot otters since then it was never the same, the time was too short, the light was wrong, they were too far off, there was always something to mar the opportunity, but not that day. That day was perfect.