July 4, 2002

3:48 PM

Xenophobia at its best!" The British and the North Americans are often said to be divided by a common language. Now it seems this linguistic split may apply to the natural world too. [¶] A pair of Canadian otters brought to Britain a year ago are under 24-hour guard at the National Sea-life Sanctuary, near Oban in Scotland, because of fears they will be attacked by indigenous cousins unable to understand their "foreign accents". "
YES!!11 GO CANADIAN OTTERS!!!
posted by ( .)(. ) (9 comments total)

That's just erie. In otter news, even the normally reliable otters.net offers little explanation for this strange behaviour. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:08 PM on July 4, 2002

What nefarious plans do they have for our otters? Are they trying to build some lithe, cunning, super otter?
posted by Salmonberry at 4:39 PM on July 4, 2002

My God. They're animals.
posted by cardboard at 6:12 PM on July 4, 2002

I don't understand. The Canadian otters grow to twice the size of the local otters. Let them drop the gloves and fight it out. Then the Scotters won't be sniffing around in their wee otter skirts looking for a fight anymore. Oh, wait. Was that too Canadian of me?
posted by srboisvert at 8:52 PM on July 4, 2002

> That's just erie.

No, it's Creran.
posted by pracowity at 10:49 PM on July 4, 2002

srboisvert, aye, but the Scottish otters are cannier than the Canadian and they probably paint their wee whiskery faces blue to do battle.
posted by Tarrama at 2:38 AM on July 5, 2002

It doesn't matter how big a scotsman or scotsotter is. Chance are he's a 'wee hard doorty bastard' and will quite easily beat the shite outta ya.
posted by Frasermoo at 3:20 AM on July 5, 2002

"My God. They're animals.

Dialects (or "accents") are fairly common in the animal kingdom. Orcas have them, so do chimpanzees (about halfway down the page). It seems logical that animals which communicate verbally (as otters do) will have regional variances in the sounds they use and the way they use them. So it's not unreasonable for otters from Canada to communicate differently than Scotters.
posted by biscotti at 7:49 AM on July 5, 2002

I thought I detected a "southern twang" from the local otters here in NC.
posted by dangerman at 9:03 AM on July 5, 2002