July 2, 2013
River Otters in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

The first full day on my recent return trip to Yellowstone National Park was also good for river otter photography at Trout Lake. Here the mother is joined by two pups on a log. The third pup was a bit more independent and was out of the frame here. Later, the mother took two of the pups out across the lake but one of the pups (probably the independent one) stayed back on the log eating a cutthroat trout. The mother and two pups had made it to the other side when the independent pup realized that it had been left behind and it started calling frantically in various directions to get mom's attention. The mother eventually started swimming back alone while calling the independent pup, and that caused the two obedient pups to start calling out because they were now being left alone. The independent pup finally saw help on the way and swam out to meet the mother and then the two went to join the obedient pups.