The minute I heard about Dr. Miriam Darlington's latest book Otter Country: An Unexpected Adventure in the Natural World, I couldn't wait to get my eyes on it. Years ago I had the luxury of watching sea otters in the waters around Homer, Alaska, and I was able to catch an occasional glance at river otters here and there, but I always wanted to know more about these clever and playful animals.
Otter Country answered most of my questions and I'm pleased Miriam could take the time to answer a few questions about her fascinating book.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Otter Country?
Miriam Darlington: The otter had vanished from the British landscape during my childhood. I knew this watery jewel of an archipelago could support a beautiful aquatic ecosystem, but it had almost been poisoned out of existence by the use of agrochemicals, DDT, and other organochloride pesticides. The destruction of the rich and complex habitats of marshes, coasts, rivers, and streams and the encroachments of unsympathetic river management, roads, and human settlements was rapacious and continuing. It had come to light that the otter was special in that it was a key indicator of the health of our wetlands—as well as the cleanliness of our own drinking water.
I wanted to unpack how it made a comeback; and just how the otter became a good news story for wildlife. I wanted to speak of how we can not only protect and preserve a threatened species but see it thrive: Once we had noticed what we had to do to make it right for the restoration of wild otters, and maintained their survival, it seemed to me to be an exemplary moment. It was such a profound story of hope. If we could become more fully aware of this success story, what else could we achieve? I wanted to open hearts. At a time when it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and disheartened at the state of the environment, I wanted to draw attention to the otter’s story. It could be a blueprint, a new narrative. In the U.K., the wild otter has had a positive outcome and has now re-established itself in every county, which shows what wonderful things we can achieve when we cooperate with nature to create healing and recovery.
MB: How does your latest book relate to your background and general areas of interest?
MD: Growing up by a river that ran down to the sea at a time when otters were disappearing, as a child I felt compelled to engage with the mystery of this fragile, vulnerable and very precious species. At first my sense of injustice was provoked by the fact that otters were still hunted, and my emotions were engaged by the fictional stories Tarka the Otter and Ring of Bright Water.
This is how children learn to care: I had one parent a scientist, and one a literary type, and both passionate about natural history: I think the stars were aligned for me to be driven to tell the story of how one’s early beginnings can develop into devotion and campaigning. I was creating a guidebook to the experience I’d had; and writing the book that I’d have loved to have had when young.
MB: Who do you hope to reach in your interesting and important book?
MD: Everyone needs to hear this urgent and compelling story. Families, politicians, businesses, educators, old and young.
MB: What are some of the major topics you consider?
MD: In Otter Country I examine and define the otter, its evolution, and its ecology. I look at tracking the animal, learning from those experts who will spend time with me, learning about field signs and managing the experience of encounters as well as building respect and understanding. I investigate the representation of the otter in literature, and analyse the human relationship with the otter through the lens of a time of socio-cultural, literary, poetic and environmental transition. I examine the wider meaning of otter in the context of ecological change.
The book is a personal quest, and reveals how it feels to go on such an exploratory and immersive tracking journey, and what surprises one might encounter. I ask how the otter and its environments have been presented in literature and how our values have changed, especially how these play out in ecologically valuable patterns of human behaviour. I look at how nature literature can challenge outdated or comfortable, sentimental attitudes, and can effect a shifting pattern of reconnection and change.
MB: How does your book differ from others that are concerned with some of the same general topics?
MD: There are many wildlife books. I think Otter Country is unique because it is so immersive: it invites you into the otter’s world. It casts off stale ideas and invites in the personal. Some of it is written from otter-nose level. It is travel memoir, presenting my own very particular journey, but, it is a dance into the otter’s sensorium. It not only tells of a deeply personal quest from child to adult, but traces the evolution of how one might deeply commit to a species at first for personal reasons, and then for scientific ones. It is implicitly about healing on many levels from the body, to the land, and vice versa. It synthesises the biology with the emotional. This may be nothing new, but the way I tell the story I think is immersive; from time to time we enter the otter’s world through the senses, and this can be affecting, hypnotic even. I have also heard that the book helps to conjure otters. Once you have read it, you’ll start to see otters in the wild if you have not before.
I am hopeful that as people learn more about who these amazing beings truly are they will be more open to developing and maintaining a relationship of coexistence that is a win-win for the otters and the humans!
References
In conversation with naturalist and nature writer Dr, Miriam Darlington. Miriam's earlier books include the highly acclaimed Owl Sense. She teaches Creative Writing at Plymouth University and publishes a regular column, the Nature Notebook, at The Times.
Nature Connections: relational engagement with nature.
The Fascinating Lives of Mysterious, Playful, Clever Otters
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19.02.2024
The minute I heard about Dr. Miriam Darlington's latest book Otter Country: An Unexpected Adventure in the Natural World, I couldn't wait to get my eyes on it. Years ago I had the luxury of watching sea otters in the waters around Homer, Alaska, and I was able to catch an occasional glance at river otters here and there, but I always wanted to know more about these clever and playful animals.
Otter Country answered most of my questions and I'm pleased Miriam could take the time to answer a few questions about her fascinating book.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Otter Country?
Miriam Darlington: The otter had vanished from the British landscape during my childhood. I knew this watery jewel of an archipelago could support a beautiful aquatic ecosystem, but it had almost been poisoned out of existence by the use of agrochemicals, DDT, and other organochloride pesticides. The destruction of the rich and complex habitats of marshes, coasts, rivers, and streams and the encroachments of unsympathetic river management, roads, and human settlements was rapacious and continuing. It had come to light that the otter was special in that it was a key indicator of the health of our wetlands—as well as the cleanliness of our own drinking water.
I wanted to unpack how it made a comeback; and just how the otter became a good news story for wildlife. I wanted to speak of how we can not only protect and preserve a threatened species but see it thrive: Once we had noticed what we had........
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