Once on the brink of extinction, otters can now happily be found in every county in England and their numbers are still on the rise. The usual culprits of habitat destruction, hunting (not banned until the late 70s), pesticides and pollution were to blame for their demise which became even more dramatic from the 1950s onwards.
Although the health of our rivers has improved in recent
decades, there is still not a single river in England classed as being of
‘good’ quality. In 2023, with all we know about the importance of protecting
our environment, this statistic is a disgrace, and a lot more needs to be done
to help otters and the rest of the river ecosystem return to their natural
state.
Last week I spent a lovely week along the River Wear in
County Durham observing this charismatic species. Trail camera evidence,
footprints and spraint had led me to a specific location. Up at the crack of
dawn each day, I would sometimes wait for hours in one spot and other times I
would walk along a stretch of the river looking out hopefully for the tell-tale
ripples and bubbles indicating that an otter might be swimming by. However,
even during the many hours without otter sightings, I was never bored as the
riverbank was alive with an abundance of different species, including a pair of
nesting kingfishers, who frequently whistled by with a flash of azure blue.
Spring is my favourite time of year as, everywhere you look, creatures are
busily preparing to raise a new generation. There is no better soundtrack to a
morning than the spring dawn chorus of hundreds of birds.
On only my second day, I could hardly believe my luck when I
heard a plop in the water and there, instead of just another mallard, was a brown
tail disappearing under the surface. With a huge adrenaline rush I crouched on
the bank, camera at the ready. Up came a little nose and two eyes looking at
me.
In these pictures you can see just how streamlined and well adapted for the water they are. They can actually close their ears and nose underwater, as well as their eyes, and their fur is perfectly designed to keep them well insulated in the cold water.
I was even lucky enough to watch this male otter feeding.
Otters have a varied diet comprising mainly fish, such as trout, salmon and eels.
Here you can see that this one is eating a lamprey. You can even see the
lamprey’s eye in this picture! However, they also feed on frogs, toads and
sometimes even small mammals and birds.
Freshwater otters are largely nocturnal, making my sighting
even more fortunate. This otter will have a number of ‘holts’ (burrows in the bank)
for shelter along the river in its over 30km range. Female otters also use
holts for breeding.
Photographing and filming otters is a challenging task, and although
I searched every single day of my visit, I did not catch another glimpse of an
otter after this one. I am already looking forward to my next visit up north!
It makes me so sad to think that otters have to put up with rivers
that are not as clean and safe as they should be. If you feel the same, please
think about signing and sharing this petition to clean up our waterways Our
water quality campaigns - Surfers Against Sewage (sas.org.uk)
