OTTERS

[marsh man]

Last year there was a thread about Seals in the Wash , one of the questions was , will they attack a dog while retrieving a duck / goose and I believe there was a case in Scotland where a dog did get attacked by a Seal .

 

Well during the week for only the second time in my life I saw a full grown Otter in the wild , my dog saw it before I did sitting half up on the river wall and when he went to see if it was one of his friends the Otter slid down the wall , splashed about in the shallow water , dived and that was the last I saw of it , only a minor thing for some , but to me it really made my day .

 

The chances of it happening would be really remote but would an Otter attack a dog on land or in the water ?

[JDog]

One of nature's great sights.

 

I am sure that otters would rather run and hide from a dog rather than attacking it unless there were pups about.

 

I have though read many stories about otter hunting where dog otters faced a pack of hounds showing no fear.

[islandgun]

When i was mink trapping my two terriers would often meet an otter and Im sure if an otter was cornered it wouldn't hesitate to fight, a big dog Otter would be a formidable opponent, My springer pup met an Otter on my croft and it was quite a while before he would happily go past the spot without back-up

[scotslad]

Many years ago I saw a terrier after it had been splattered by an otter, the terrier had wandered off and as terriers do went down an otter holt.

But I can't see an otter attacking while its on top of the ground unless cornered , which is unlikely to corner 1.

On the local river it is absolutely full of otters, so muh so many of the good duck ponds eside the river are now a complete waste of time. my mate who runs bat on the river has hadfish attackd and killed a few times now while on his line, which is ironic as the river is catch and release now

[Highlandladdie]

I love watching them, they are such playful creatures.

If you have read Ring of Bright Water you will know that they can and will bite, but as already said I think they'd more likely slink off

[kitchrat]

This year, in the wilds of Canada I have seen otters several times at my wetlands.

Once, during a summer reccy, 2 otters were after a young duck which could not yet fly (it got away), last week my buddy had them after a wounded duck but this week there were 2 pairs sliding about on the ice.

The day was a non-event, after leaving at 3.00 am and fighting my way over the 2 passes, I was horrified to find a 4-inch snowfall in the valley. All open water was either slush or ice and the birds were elsewhere. Not a shot was fired but I did get to see the above otters and some huge wolf tracks. Any of them in Norfolk??

[marsh man]

No , I haven't seen any wolf tracks but I know there are some  wolves in our banks and insurance brokers

 

P S........ We haven't seen any snow yet , although this morning was the first time I had to use the de icer on the car wind screen .

[kitchrat]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

No , I haven't seen any wolf tracks but I know there are some  wolves in our banks and insurance brokers

 

P S........ We haven't seen any snow yet , although this morning was the first time I had to use the de icer on the car wind screen .

Bear tracks in the snow in the garden this am, 6 ft from the front door. Yes I know you have bears in The City...........

[islandgun]

11 hours ago, scotslad said:

Many years ago I saw a terrier after it had been splattered by an otter, the terrier had wandered off and as terriers do went down an otter holt.

But I can't see an otter attacking while its on top of the ground unless cornered , which is unlikely to corner 1.

On the local river it is absolutely full of otters, so muh so many of the good duck ponds eside the river are now a complete waste of time. my mate who runs bat on the river has hadfish attackd and killed a few times now while on his line, which is ironic as the river is catch and release now

Ive given up on keeping ducks the Otter took one a day, interestingly the otter took only one, whereas a mink would kill as many as it could,  the otters here have their holts along the shore and feed mostly on pollack and shore crabs...... and ducks..

[anser2]

I am not sure about the lower Norfolk Broads rivers , but the mid and upper rivers and marsh dykes are full of otters. In the last few years I have seen them on all the main rivers in the area , often in 2s and 3s at a time. At Reedham Ferry there was a female with a cub that regulary showed in the middle of the day ignoring the passing boats and people a few yards away on the bank. Rockland Broad and the Wavenly at Geldeston have perhaps the highest density and I see them there in perhaps 3 out of 4 flights during the winter. Last autumn there was a family group that were often present in the dykes at the Burgh Castle end of Breydon marshes. Had the dammed things playing with my decoys one night. My latest sighting were two on the River Stiffkey last Sunday.

[Smiler23]

Id never seen one up until 2 years ago, now see them fairly regular. My first sighting was on the estuary we watched hunting down the main channel and then towards us, when it caught something it walked up the mud and ate it 30 yards from where we hiding.. Lovely to see

[Scully]

There are several on our stretch of the Eden, and I’ve often sat and watched them.

They're  just a big mustelid as far as I know, and after experiencing my hob ferret wrestling my Border ( made a b-line for her at every opportunity ) terrier on a couple of occasions I have no doubt an Otter is capable of making itself felt.

Given the choice however,  I think it would slink off. 

[Benthejockey]

A big dog otter would hold at bay to a pack of hounds but they wouldn’t get within striking distance! He’d make a mess of a terrier or pet dog. I was waiting to shoot a mink at the end of the summer that had been spotted travelling backwards and forwards along the same stretch of river for a week at the same time of evening. Along comes Mr Mink swimming and I watch through the scope hoping he’d hop up on the bank only it’s not a mink it’s a massive otter. I watched him for 10 mins fishing and playing until he disappeared around the meander of the river. 

[Mice!]

We were at Blackpool zoo Sunday, sun was shining and pretty much everything was basking in the warmth, ate lunch watching the tigers but one of the highlights was still watching two small offers, not our native ones but lovely creatures, they may be eating your ducks but I still want to see them in the wild.

[marsh man]

On ‎07‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 11:35, anser2 said:

I am not sure about the lower Norfolk Broads rivers , but the mid and upper rivers and marsh dykes are full of otters. In the last few years I have seen them on all the main rivers in the area , often in 2s and 3s at a time. At Reedham Ferry there was a female with a cub that regulary showed in the middle of the day ignoring the passing boats and people a few yards away on the bank. Rockland Broad and the Wavenly at Geldeston have perhaps the highest density and I see them there in perhaps 3 out of 4 flights during the winter. Last autumn there was a family group that were often present in the dykes at the Burgh Castle end of Breydon marshes. Had the dammed things playing with my decoys one night. My latest sighting were two on the River Stiffkey last Sunday.

I very much doubt If there is any animal that will stop the Otter increasing in numbers, and if you loath them , or love them you can thank Phillip Wayre who opened the Otter Trust in 1971 after he done a survey of nearly 3000 Otter sites and found there were only 170 sites that still had evidence of Otters.

In 1976 he opened the first reserve at Earsham , just through Bungay on the Norfolk / Suffolk border and the first three Otters bred in captivity were released in 1983 , by the mid 90s they had released 130 Otters in various rivers mainly in east Anglia , in 2006 most of the sanctuaries closed and when they surveyed the same sites they found more than half held Otters , by 2014 they estimated there were around 12000 otters in Britain , around half to two thirds there were in the 50s.

I did read somewhere where there are now Otters in every river in the U K that hold fish and no doubt in every lake as well, love them or loath them I think we have to accept they are here to stay.

[islandgun]

48 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I very much doubt If there is any animal that will stop the Otter increasing in numbers, and if you loath them , or love them you can thank Phillip Wayre who opened the Otter Trust in 1971 after he done a survey of nearly 3000 Otter sites and found there were only 170 sites that still had evidence of Otters.

In 1976 he opened the first reserve at Earsham , just through Bungay on the Norfolk / Suffolk border and the first three Otters bred in captivity were released in 1983 , by the mid 90s they had released 130 Otters in various rivers mainly in east Anglia , in 2006 most of the sanctuaries closed and when they surveyed the same sites they found more than half held Otters , by 2014 they estimated there were around 12000 otters in Britain , around half to two thirds there were in the 50s.

I did read somewhere where there are now Otters in every river in the U K that hold fish and no doubt in every lake as well, love them or loath them I think we have to accept they are here to stay.

Thanks for the stats, I remember fishing in the Chelmer as a small lad, probably about 1960 and hearing a noise, crashing/rustling in the bank side vegetation, followed by a plop into the water, I used to think that it was possibly the last of the original otters, in what is now a built up area, maybe, or maybe a coypu which were around in east Anglia then

[marsh man]

29 minutes ago, islandgun said:

Thanks for the stats, I remember fishing in the Chelmer as a small lad, probably about 1960 and hearing a noise, crashing/rustling in the bank side vegetation, followed by a plop into the water, I used to think that it was possibly the last of the original otters, in what is now a built up area, maybe, or maybe a coypu which were around in east Anglia then

Evening islandgun .... Could well have been an Otter you heard , if they recon that 12,000 were half to two thirds that were abundant  in the 50s , there must have been a few strongholds left in the early 60s , my memory is getting a bit vague now but it must have been around that time I saw a dead one on the road just outside Yarmouth and although I spend a great deal of my life on our local marshes I have only seen two now out in the wild , and both of them were in the last couple of years and yet our good friend answer2 see them regular on the adjoining rivers a few miles from where I live , and I believe in Thetford they are a tourist attraction in the river around the town .

[Benthejockey]

Coypou? We’re they a release/escapee?

[scotslad]

Really in many places they really shoul be bringing back the otter houns, it woul never happen thou.

I know my local river has always kept a small population of otters but now its a really large population, the hounds would spread the otters out a bit and mix up the gen's for breeding.

I would imagine most otter packs where some of the 1st to notice a decline, I know our local pack stopped before the ban even thou otters where stiii about.

Marsh man Was that philp waryne that starte otter trust an otter huntsman? Quite often hunters start these conservation charities (much as the charities try to hide the fact) WWT?? 

Also at a time when most rivers have never had so little fish running them having resident predators at the highest population/density is only a recipe for disaster. And I know otters don't really target fish 1st, but if numbers are high they will soon exhast there more staple foods (eels) and even eel numbers are meant to be lower than ever too

[Walker570]

They most certainly cleared our river of mink. To date they don't appear to have had any effect on trout and grayling stocks, preferring to catch and eat the slower lethargic fish, chub, pike of which we have too many now the EA no longer comes and electro fishes.  We shall see how things evolve as with all protected species they eventually breed up to numbers whereby damage to the environment occurs....... badgers a prime example, but also buzzards moving that way.  

[anser2]

12 hours ago, Benthejockey said:

Coypou? We’re they a release/escapee?

Most escaped from fur farms in the 1040s and bred in the wild. They  are now suposed to be extinct in the UK following a control program, but interestingly a dead one was found on the roadside in Norfolk last year ( Norfolk Bird and Mammal report 2016.)

[Benthejockey]

Interesting! 

[islandgun]

There was someone on here, from Germany i think, who was eating Coypu