Lockdown Love Story for Scarborough Otter

Thursday, 3 December 2020 12:10

Pumpkin the widowed otter has found love in lockdown after her animal care team at SEA LIFE Scarborough answered an ad on Otter dating site ‘Fishing for Love’

Pumpkin, a female otter at SEA LIFE Scarborough recently lost her elderly partner Eric and was finding life without him extremely lonely especially with the upcoming festive season. So the team at Scarborough headed onto otter dating site ‘Fishing For Love’ to see if they could find her the perfect match with whom she could share some Christmas cheer.

After searching the entire lonely-hearts section, and a few bad swipes later (who said online dating was easy) the team were delighted to stumble across Harris’ profile - and it looked like the team may have found Pumpkin a ‘significant otter’!

Harris, the Asian short clawed otter, who was residing at The Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, had also recently lost his partner Apricot who sadly passed away, leaving Harris alone for the first time in four years. Whilst it first appeared that Harris may have resigned himself back to the bachelor lifestyle, it soon became clear he was starting to miss somebody to snuggle up in front of the fire and watch Netflix with (they don't really do that).

After exchanging a few WhatsApp messages and the odd picture or two it appeared that these two could make an ‘otterly’ amazing match, so the decision was made to move Harris from his Cornish home to SEA LIFE Scarborough.

The introduction of Asian short-clawed otters can be nerve racking and difficult to get right. To ensure the best chance of a new pairing getting off on the right foot, it’s best to introduce a new male into a female’s territory so that the male more easily submits to the female on first meeting.

Whilst Pumpkin nervously awaited the arrival of her long-distance love it appeared that Harris couldn’t wait to finally be united with his online romance to find out if this would be his fairytale of the Yorkshire coast.

SEA LIFE Scarborough are delighted to report that things are going swimmingly, and the pair have enjoyed a series of dates.

Todd German, curator at SEA LIFE Scarborough said:

“After an extremely sad period for both Pumpkin and the Animal Care team here at Scarborough we are delighted to report that not only is Pumpkin happy once again, but Harris has settled in extremely well and has already become part of the SEA LIFE Scarborough family. We can’t wait for our guests to meet the happy couple”

Tamara Cooper, curator at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary said:

"We are absolutely delighted that Pumpkin and Harris are getting on so well and he has settled in so quickly. He is very much missed here at the Sanctuary but after everything Pumpkin and Harris have been through with losing their partners, it is the perfect fairytale ending for them to have found love again."

The SEA LIFE aquarium in Scarborough reopened on Wednesday 2nd December with the same extensive safety measures in place as previously used; these include online only bookings, enhanced cleaning regimens, the wearing of PPE and social distancing.