North American River Otter, (not a wildlife image)
Almost two weeks ago we had the grandkids here and visiting the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa was fun and educating for everybody. The North American River Otter is my favorite critter in the museum. The otter sleeps most of the time but we were lucky to see the animal swimming and climbing over the rocks in its enclosure. There used to be two river otters but we learned that one of them had passed away. A few years ago we have seen an otter family in the Little Maquoketa River, down in the valley and a few miles upstream, but I never had a chance yet to make a picture of this beautiful critter in the wild. Well, I still keep my eyes open…