Names sought for Elvis offspring

The sex of the young otters has only recently been determined

A marine visitor attraction on Tyneside is asking the public to come up with names for a quartet of baby otters.

The four are the offspring of a pair of Asian short-claw otters named Elvis and Priscilla, residing at Blue Reef Aquarium in Tynemouth.

They were born more than a year ago, but keepers have only recently been able to determine that they are males.

Visitors are now being asked to come up with appropriate names, not necessarily on an Presley theme.

Suggestions can be sent in on a post-card or posted into a box at the aquarium until after the half term holiday.

Highly social

Anna Etchells, from Blue Reef, said: "The otters' dad is called Elvis and their mum is named Priscilla so there is something of a Presley theme at the moment.

"However we've decided that we don't necessarily have to carry that on and we'll pick names that we feel best fit their temperaments.

"Having looked through a list of all of Elvis' most famous hits we've also discovered that most of his songs are, unsurprisingly, about girls, and names like Mona Lisa, Maybellene and Long Tall Sally don't quite fit the bill."

Asian short-claw otters are highly social and intelligent mammals with a wide vocabulary. Scientists have identified up to 12 different calls.

In parts of their native Southeast Asia fishermen have trained them to drive schools of fish into their nets. The otters are put on a harness and allowed to keep any fish they catch.