Video of “Otters holding hands” now attracting viewers on YouTube

   A video footage showing otters making up a couple by holding hands has been posted on YouTube and is now attracting many viewers. It is also gaining attention in Japan. Here is how the footage is like.

   The footage, entitled "Otters holding hands", lasts one minutes and 40 seconds. It was uploaded to the video sharing website YouTube on March 19, 2007. The video shows a couple of otters floating on the water on their backs holding hands. They look cute and especially attract the viewers when the two animals are separated from each other for seconds and then float back to each other again to hold hands.

   The visitors to the YouTube website can hear the views of the otters exclaiming "they are holding hands", "really cute" and "they look sleepy".

   The same footage is shown also on the official website of the aquarium where the otters are kept and to the local media, sharply pushing up the popularity. The footage had been re-played about 6.42 million times as of May 22, 2007.

The couple is kept at Canadian aquarium

Otters forming a couple so popular on YouTube

   The otters are 17-year-old female, named Nyak, and 7-year-old male, Milo. It is not the first time for Nyak to attract media attention. She is well known for having been rescued from the trouble she had when she was involved in a crude oil leak from a tanker that met an accident in Alaska in 1989.

   Officials at the aquarium are welcoming the popularity of the footage as it could help promote the protection of the otters which are facing the danger of extinction.

    Cynthia Holmes, teacher at a university who took the video and posted on YouTube in 2002, told the local broadcasting corporation CBC that she did not think the video was particularly well taken, although, she added, "They are cute." The popularity may have been unexpected for her.