Otter

[Dartmoor navigator]

I am lucky, or unlucky, enough to fish on a river where otters are resident. I normal sight them (at night) quite close up and hear their whistling calls to each other. I have tried to look for their evidnence to show others in daylight, but I am a fairly useless tracker.

Has anyone got pictures of otter tracks, habitat, spraint etc that they would care to share?

 

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

http://www.uksafari.com/otters2.htm i think there otter tracks ^^ i googgled it


----
Skipp

 

[JonathanD]

Loads, but here are a few...

 

[Ronnie]

The spraint is usually pretty unmistakable. Dry, fibrous, with plenty of chewed up fish bones.

If you find tracks in snow, look for evidence of tobogganing as they slide down hill on their bellies, steering with their body and tail, and occasionally paddling along with their feet on the slow parts. I once followed such a track 1500 feet up a hillside on Knoydart - I only turned back because my wee sister was getting cold!

 

[JonathanD]

Tracks usually have five toes and are spread, unlike most other large mammals we have whose toes are close together. Check the bank for prints where silt has collected on bends. The only other large mammal who will go on these is the mink. But their prints are much smaller and delicate.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

Thanks very much folks. The tracks do look distinctive, it reminds me of a handprint with the thumb on the 'inside'.

 

[JonathanD]

Thanks very much folks. The tracks do look distinctive, it reminds me of a handprint with the thumb on the 'inside'.

That's actually not a bad description on how they can appear on softer ground.

 

[Rumi]

Spraint.. one of many different varieties

Range in colour and texture from above through to black as illustrated below.

almost odourless

Tracks on frosted wood and ice with snow on it

 

[pango]

I had mixed emotions the other day when seeing a dead otter beside the main road not far from home. Even though it had been killed on the road, I still was pleased to see it.

The local environment showed a remarkable recovery after the de-industrialisation of the 1980's and the closure of the Mining Industry and dependent services, etc, although it's hard to see the benefits when surrounded by devastated communities and shattered lives. Without a doubt though, within a few years there were runs of salmon and sea trout unheard of within living memory; the streaks of kingfishers and sign of otter on the rivers; osprey giving surprise appearances over local lochs; buzzards and other raptors everywhere you looked and fox, roe and badger, et al, pioneering formerly industrial waste-lands. A sight to behold indeed, and one that must have been witnessed from Fife to Kent.

Unfortunately, and within 15 years of the pit closures, the trend of surface coal extraction has expanded at a frightening rate and is far more destructive than deep-coal mining and steel production ever were. Past experience is a breath of hope for the future, but I never a thought I'd see the day that even a dead otter was a good sign!


Ronnie,
I too followed an otter in Knoydart. I found its tracks after it had checked out my tent early one morning and I followed it up the north-western track to Ladhar Bheinn. I lost him at about 2,500 feet, but when I looked back down the track I discovered he'd given me the slip and was 100 yards away lolling back the way he'd come.
I'd swear he had a smirk on his face when he turned to make sure I knew I'd been outsmarted!

 

[Ronnie]

Pango - the track that I followed had footprints running uphill beside it. He'd obviously trekked all the way up with the sole intention of sliding back down!

 

[Rumi]

More Otter track pictures for you. I have to say I feel very privileged to have an Otter on my doorstep and regular sightings too.

This print was a few hours old and one of the clearest I have found to date

The Tracks running immediately to the side of the canal along the bank.

A couple of examples of the tobogganing. Its hard to see from the photo, but the pairs of prints are quite far apart indicating that the otter is actually tobogganing rather than cantering.

Straight slide into the canal which is 7' wide at this point.

This is where it came out of the water

The Otter(s) I think we may have another litter! tend to enter and leave the water at different points, have trails that they habitually use but in different directions and range far and wide crossing fields to get to lakes and other watercourses.

 

[21st century pict]

17.4.2011 my first Otter track with Heron and Pheasant.

.Otter and 6in scale.