River Otter visits

[Mooseherder]

We have had two River Otters show up the last 4 days.  Sometimes they come twice a day to catch and eat a fish and then go on their merry way.   My wife went down to the pond with the camera today when she saw one feller on the bank eating a fish.  He took off to the neighbors pond when she got too close.  When Otter number two came out of the water it was looking for it's buddy.  The video shows #2 going over to the neighbors.  The noise in the background is DanG crickets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzySb9G5RLs

[Onthesauk]

Quite amazed at how big they are.  We've got otter in the rivers out here, often see them when I'm fishing.  But much smaller.  Still beautiful animals.

[fishpharmer]

They are neat critters, but Dang I like em in coat form way better than in my ponds. ;)

[pineywoods]

Fishpharmer, I hear you. Had a pair take up residence in one of my fish ponds. Bout wiped out the catfish population. Tried traps, all we got was 1 toe. Neighbor got both of them - with his pickup truck  ;D

[SwampDonkey]

I have them here, they raid the beaver ponds for the beavers. Most of the fish are just chubs, they can have all of them they can eat. I have followed their tracks in the snow. They walk some and slide on the hills. Neat critters. 

[ely]

fish eating machines for sure. they do have the finest fur of anything i have ever skinned.

[Mooseherder]

They were back and stayed most of the day. She got more video.

[Coon]

Can you post some more, please?

[Mooseherder]

Sure Can Coon.
It may be a little hard to follow because they are in the water.
At the end one pokes his head out of the water.  She decided to quit filming not knowing what they might do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5BLLIaIILk

[Coon]

They sure dont seem to stay still for very long do they.....   Thanks for the videos Mooseherder.

[Mooseherder]

We aren't sure if these 2 are from the same group of 3 that used to come around.
A Turtle had bit one of them while wrestling a fish away.  I think Turtles have a lot of bacteria in their bite.

[Mooseherder]

Lolita had a visitor today and got some great video of an Otter tearing up a Tilapia.
She had a couple of Camera drops for a few moments but it is still the closest ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldoSxhvpY0E

[Mooseherder]

One with it out of the water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCXbwT-Jl20

[fishpharmer]

Where's the big gator when you need one ? ;)

Cool videos of my arch enemies. :D

[Mooseherder]

I bet the lil' Gator would back down from them crazy Otters.

You Otter know there was another visitor tonight. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqbjB6IvB3c

[Tom]

All sleek critters.

[Jasperfield]

I guess Jim was keeping the gators occupied while Marvin did the commentary.

[ErikC]

 My brother bought about 1200 6" trout and stocked one of dad's ponds when he was in high school. It was an FFA project. Everything was going along fine and they were 8" or a little better, then a few Mergansers showed up. Well, he got that all squared away without too many losses, and then the otters showed up. 2 or 3 otters wiped it clean in a few days, and he never got more than a glimpse of them. :-\
My friends hounds had the misfortune of catching up with one, I was there but mine were not in on it thankfully. He out and out whipped a whole pack of good bear dogs in no time. These are dogs that I have seen stay with a bayed bear on the ground all day long dozens of times, and they couldn't let go of that otter fast enough. Every one of them got stitches. I doubt he even got hurt.
So don't try to pet them Mooseherder!!! :D

[Mooseherder]

There have been a couple of reported Otter attacks on humans the past couple months locally.
I've seen them attack some young ducklings a few years ago.  My daughter reacted by running down to the scene while yelling like a crazy woman.  The ottter let go but the duckling was never gonna be the same.  Hopefully she wouldn't react that way again.
I think one of the Otters who got bit by the Turtle on an earlier visit has probably died from the bite.
We've heard about that happening and sure enough, there was only one otter here today.

[ErikC]

 Pretty as they are, otters are just not all that nice. Not that you would expect any member of the family weasels, fishers, badgers, wolverines and other unsavory characters are in to be nice.

[sandhills]

I was just gonna ask if they were any relation to badgers, them things have no sense of humor whatsoever. 

[SwampDonkey]

We used to fish brook trout on "First Lake" and hardly anyone knew where it was, it was hidden behind a big hill. We used to canoe up a neighboring lake and walk up a stream adjoining the two lakes and then hit a nice deer path to our fishing spot. I had caught 3 or 4 trout and had them in an alder stick on the shore. Was fishing away and hear this sound of an animal and look over and it's a mink eating my fish. He was nasty for a little guy and I wasn't gonna argue over them fish.  ;D :D :D

[chain]

I began trapping river otter 5 years ago but decided to not trap this year. Most our game fish are gone and the otter are now eating turtles and rough fish. Caught over thirty otter mostly in the conibear body grip type traps out of our twenty-five acre lake; caught one otter in a bobcat foothold trap that had to shoot..what a bloody mess !

Biologists say a adult otter will eat 2.5 lbs of fish a day or other available prey such as crayfish, rats, snakes, rabbits, etc. I've taken about six otter per year from our 25 acre lake; I estimate today their are at least a dozen otter here, now beginning to breed again. The old settlers that came here long ago found otter by the dozens also but they hunted and used dogs to dig them out year around, nearly annililating the species.

Yet today, we must have our harvested river otter tagged by a state wildlife officer as to appease international law regarding the protection of the sea otter.

[ely]

several years back, i think maybe 20, the state wildlife dept. made a big deal about stocking river otters in the state rivers and streams.
it was a large fine if you got caught molesting one of the creatures. ( not exactly sure what that entails) but anyway. the animals have done quite well for themselves here and i used to watch beavers in the river from my deerstand. now i get to watch the otters play in the water instead. not sure where the beavers went.

this year i realize the otters are not playing, they were fishing. they kept dragging carp and buffalo out onto the bank. not eating them , just dragging them out of the water and going back for more.
when i quit hunting there was 10 fish laying on the bank in the sun, there was also a pair of otters laying up there with the fish, i guess they were resting from all the fishing they had done that morning :

about two weeks ago i was walking power lines doing some inspecting and i crossed a dam on a pond. i noticed that there was alot of mussel shells scattered about on the dam. the water was stirred into a muddy mess. usually clear this time of year. it didnt take me long to figure out that the otters had eaten the mussels.

i find this funny because the state made a big deal years ago about making the mussels of the state rivers and streams off limits to people wanting to gather them.

[SwampDonkey]

We had over fishing here in the little brooks. I know of a lot of people that don't stop, as they don't believe in limits to fish/harvest. So then the trash fish like the chubs and suckers took over and that is what the otters are eating in my area. And they are also killing the beavers, which is a blessing.