Otterly magical
An award-winning film by Charlie Hamilton James explores the relationship between a wild otter and the man who saved her
The Walt Disney Company
- Terry Payne
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Film-maker Charlie Hamilton James made the first of many trips to Shetland as a 16-year-old to photograph otters. “I was a weird teenager. I craved the solitude I could find with nature and I was obsessed with otters!”
His subsequent career has seen him behind the camera on some of David Attenborough’s biggest natural history series and, more recently, travelling the globe as a stills photographer with National Geographic magazine.
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However, it was because of his Shetland connections that Hamilton James – whom RT readers might remember from his BBC series My Halcyon River and Halcyon River Diaries made with his now ex-wife and former TV presenter Philippa Forrester – was made aware of an extraordinary relationship that was developing between an orphaned otter pup and a couple who discovered her near their waterside home on Shetland and named her Molly.
So captivated was he by what he heard that he dropped everything and spent a year there filming. The award-winning result – Billy and Molly: an Otter Love Story – has just scooped the Golden Panda award at the wildlife equivalent of the Oscars, and tells the story of a young orphaned otter rescued by Billy Mail, a 57-year-old former oil industry engineer who found her weak and dying and, with his wife Susan, 59, helped bring her – and himself – back to health and happiness.
BILLY'S STORY
It was March 2021; I was looking out of the window and I saw this otter in the sea in front of the house, diving and catching food and taking it onto the pontoon and eating it. I could see she was really thin, you could see her bones sticking out, so for me it was natural to help her. I hate seeing animals suffering and I may be humanising them, but an animal can’t understand why a bad thing is happening to it — whereas a human being can rationalise it.
I had no real idea what I was doing, but I knew feeding an animal that was going to die of starvation couldn’t be a bad thing. I started putting fish out and the fish would disappear. Within a month she got used to the idea that there was a human being who was giving her food. She was young, playful and curious — we even got the impression that she liked company. We’d be sitting on the lawn having a cup of tea and she would just come, lie on the lawn and roll on the grass — almost hanging out with us.
To have something as unique as we had with Molly and to resist the temptation to domesticate her was quite hard. It’s difficult not to become affectionate and let her get under your skin and into your heart. But we knew that she was still a wild otter and, for her not to become dependent on us, I would need to stop feeding her.
I had to let her go.
I knew Molly was still a wild otter… I had to let her go
Billy Mail
Although she would frequently disappear for days, she did at one point go missing for weeks. Naturally, there was a worry that maybe she had died and I guess that, having stopped feeding her, I would have felt partly responsible for that. But then one snowy night she returned and it was just a lovely moment — it was almost like a reunion of friends.
Award-winning film Billy & Molly explores the special bond between an otter and the man who saved hero help an animal go from the point of death to being a healthy functioning otter, and then to see her producing her own offspring, was so rewarding. I had helped her to become a happy, nurturing mother.
I could never have children myself and I suppose the film does suggest Molly was filling a void in my life. But I have never been the kind of person to actively do something to fill that gap.
I love wildlife… when they’re not present, dare I say it, there’s something missing.
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Today, Molly is older, a bit less playful, more serious. She still comes for food now and again, especially during winter. And she brings her youngster with her. It’s like she’s saying, “I remember what happened here”.
Authors
Terry Payne
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