Otters conquer Singapore

The marineforum also likes to take a look at the Indo-Pacific region on the occasion of Bavaria's voyage. Here you can read about some very different "sea stories": A strange plague, as the Washington Post recently reported.

Pollution and deforestation wiped out Singapore's otter population in the 1970s. But when the country cleaned up its waters and reforested the land in recent years, the otters returned, integrated into the urban environment and learnt to find their way in the new world.

In Marina Bay, known for its architecturally daring hotels and $1.8 million one-bedroom flats, otters frolic in the water and the crunching of fish bones echoes across the waterfront. Using drainpipes as motorways, the carnivorous mammals criss-cross the city, sometimes popping up in rush-hour traffic or racing through university campuses. Otters, driven out of local rivers and bays by rival families, burrow between buildings. They frequent the lobbies of hospitals and the pools of apartment blocks, hunt koi fish and drink from fountains.

As expected, not all residents are enthusiastic, especially during the pandemic, because people had to stay at home and the animals had free rein in the city.