A Heart-Warming Story Of Rare Friendship Between A Wild Otter And A Man From Remote Scottish Islands

Otters are mesmerizingly cute yet extremely shy mammals, making them notoriously hard to spot. Therefore, when the wildlife cameraman and presenter Charlie Hamilton James was told about the magical bond between Shetland Islander Billy Mail and an orphaned otter, he knew that this unusual story could be turned into a very special film.

An award-winning documentary produced by the Emmy and BAFTA winner Jeff Wilson invites everyone to take a closer look at an extraordinary story about a one-of-a-kind friendship.

More info: National Geographic 

The entire story began when 57-year-old Billy Mail, together with his wife Susan, decided to move back to the Shetland Islands, where he was originally from. Not long after their move, Billy had lost both of his parents and on top of that, the coronavirus pandemic hit—just as the couple started building a new extension on their home. Therefore, it was quite intense and heavy at the time, but everything changed in March 2021.

Billy was sitting in his house, looking over the pontoon’s edge, when he suddenly noticed the otter cub diving right in front of him.

"Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to see how close I could get to it," he recalled.

The man started regularly leaving fish out for the wild animal yet very quickly realized that something wasn't right, because the usually timid otter, who Billy later named Molly, didn't seem to be afraid of him.

"She stopped eating, looked me right in the eye, and then went back to it," the man said. "I thought 'That's not right, a wild otter should've run away at that point," he added.

Billy knew that recently, not far from their home, a female otter had lost her life in a road accident, so he assumed the cub was probably her orphan.

"She was really thin and emaciated, but she wasn't unhealthy - she was just hungry," he shared.

After contacting the local wildlife sanctuary, Billy was allowed to continue feeding the animal as long as he didn't domesticate her.

Billy and his wife started carefully nursing the cub back to health, and eventually, the otter became a huge part of the Mail family. Even their rescue collie, Jade, created a beautiful bond with Molly. Besides that, the otter was the perfect distraction the couple needed so much at the time.

"There was a lot of stuff happening at the time and Molly turned up right in the middle of that," the man recalled.

Even though Susan was a bit afraid at the beginning since she had never interacted with a wild animal before, helping Molly was incredibly rewarding and touching.

The always curious and playful otter would always come up to interact with the couple and even recognize their voices, according to Billy.

"Especially when she was younger, and if you were outside working she would have to come and see what you were doing,” the man said.

Yet, no matter how cute Molly was,  the couple knew deep inside that the otter belonged to nature. Therefore, one day Billy decided to stop giving food to the cub in order to encourage her to learn to do it for herself before the winter.

It didn't take long until Molly's visits became more and more scarce, then stopped completely. The couple was scared at the beginning that something might have happened to the otter, especially due to the rough winter. However, in 2022, she returned—and surprisingly, she wasn't alone.

"We were really happy to see she was still alive, still thriving and in a really good condition. The bonus was that she was pregnant," Billy said.

Molly not only remembered the place where the couple took care of her but also returned to give birth to her own babies. Beautifully enough, the two of them still often come to the family's garden.

"To take this otter that was cute and cuddly, but in desperate need of help, and to feed her and nurture her through adolescence and help her develop into a fully-grown adult, then off she went and hung out with her own family - observing that circle of life happening but also being a part of it was incredibly rewarding," the man shared.

A filmmaker Charlie Hamilton-James knew the Shetland Islands very well since he had visited the place quite often as a teenager. Therefore, when he found out about such a special bond between the wild otter and Billy, he immediately arranged to meet the couple.

For Billy and Susan, it was a huge surprise yet also the most perfect way to mark the end of the road of such an incredibly beautiful friendship with Molly.

The documentary which took more than a year to film has already won an award at Bristol's Wildscreen Festival and has also been nominated for a prestigious American Critics Choice Documentary Award.