Giant River Otter Family — Manu Peru

The giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) family groups of Manu's oxbow lakes (cochas) — particularly Cocha Salvador's resident family of 8–12 individuals, studied continuously since 1986 — create South America's finest accessible giant river otter encounter. The family's daily fishing programme (the group spreading across the lake in a V-formation, the dominant female's 'periscope' surveillance posture, the pups' first fishing attempts, and the group's extraordinary vocalisation) is observable from the wooden platform above Cocha Salvador from 6am, and the otters' complete habituation to the platform (they fish within 5 metres of visitors) creates an encounter of extraordinary intimacy. The giant river otter's combination of its 1.8-metre length, its extraordinarily expressive social behaviour, and its endangered status (fewer than 5,000 remaining, eliminated from most of its former range) creates one of South America's most compelling conservation wildlife encounters.