While helping Mike in one of the guest cabins, I spotted this slinky-like object speeding across the ice in the lagoon.

It’s a river otter. River otters, like sea otters, are members of the weasel family, the mustelids. They are long, skinny, playful animals, like weasels and martens. When river otters travel across snow, they will slide on their bellies on downhill slopes, making some interesting tracks. As their name suggests, they are often seen in rivers and other bodies of freshwater, but they venture into saltwater as well. We’ve seen them in the harbor in Seward.

This fellow slinky-hopped a good long way across the ice then slid–bloop!–into the lagoon with the seals and sea otters.