WATCH: Otter chaos as Bishan and Marina otter families clash at Kallang Basin

Video screengrab
Video screengrab

Battle formations, people. After a year of peace between the two smooth-coated otter families of Singapore, both clans inadvertently went head to head yesterday morning in Kallang Basin, the arena that hosted their little skirmish.

A clip of the conflict was shared on the Ottercity Facebook page today — a conflict that erupted thanks to the Marina otter house breaching into the territory of their bitter rivals. Back in 2015, the notably aggressive Bishan family relocated from their original home at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to the Marina Bay district, but not before chasing out the Marina otters from their domain. Since then, the Marina family have been nomads, residing in places such as East Coast and Singapore River before making Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park their home. But for years, they’ve been wanting to return back to their original home at Marina Reservoir, and one of the many clashes between the two clans resulted in a dead otter pup from House Marina.

It appears to be that they made another attempt to do so. According to Otter city, the Marina family had traveled over 10 km from Lower Pierce Reservoir and arrived at Kallang Basin on Tuesday, staying the night with no intention to go back upstream.

At first light yesterday, the Marina family moved downstream — coincidentally in the path of the Bishan family, which had just woken up. On one side, eight voyaging Marina otters. On the other, nine Bishan otters ready to rumble again to defend their conquered home.

For the life of us, we can’t make out which side is which (they all look the same), even though Ottercity stated that one could easily guess “who is who in the video”. The story’s still developing, noted Ottercity, and updates will be provided soon enough regarding the outcome of the battle, or if there are casualties.



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