WHEN Australia’s prime minister came to visit Singapore last year, his local counterpart took him to visit not the Merlion, a statue of a mythical creature adopted decades ago as a national mascot, but the Bishan Ten—a photogenic family of otters that have become something of a national obsession. In early August Singaporeans chose the Bishan Ten as the official emblem of their country’s 51st year. A state media firm has produced a documentary on the family, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. And the city-state has just hosted the 13th International Otter Congress.
Otters had disappeared from Singapore by the 1970s, as rubbish, farm waste and sewage clogged its few short rivers. But in 1977 Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s independence leader, ordained a clean-up, as part of his vision to turn Singapore into a “garden city”. “The river went from black to clear in less than a decade,” says Sivasothi, also known as Otterman, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore.
As the rivers grew cleaner, fish populations returned. By 1998, the first otter families began to return to...Continue reading
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