Otters back from the brink of extinction

[SpikyPhasmid]

The otter has made a remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction, the Environment Agency has said.

Otters almost disappeared from England in the 1970s after pesticides routinely used three decades ago brought their numbers to near extinction levels.

Now many of those chemicals have been banned and the creatures are present once again in rivers across England.

In many watercourses in the south-west and along the River Wye otter numbers are at maximum capacity.

Their numbers are being limited not by pollution but their own territorial behaviour.

That recovery is rapidly being matched elsewhere, and otters are now found in every English county except Kent.

There are also healthy populations in Northumbria, Cumbria, Wessex and the Upper Severn.

BBC rural affairs correspondent Jeremy Cooke says it is a remarkable tale of survival that is encouraging news for conservationists.

Paul Raven, head of conservation and ecology at the Environment Agency, said: "The otter is at the top of the food chain, and as such is an important indicator of the health of English rivers.

"The recovery of otters from near-extinction shows how far we've come in controlling pollution and improving water quality."

The agency predicts the species will fully recover in numbers across England in less than 20 years.

BBC News

Happy Monday - here's some good news.

[The Woodman]

Good news indeed on the day of publishing the EA's Fifth Otter Survey report - which the BBC newslink doesn't mention! It doesn't even mention it on the EA's website yet.

Do I also see an Asian short-clawed otter image on that page??

[vole-woman]

We are tripping over them round here (n Shrops). Almost every canal bridge I go under, I find spraint.

It is good news, and I hope we learn from it with regard to the licensing and use of other agrochemicals, and the treatment of our water courses generally.

[SpikyPhasmid]

Woodman, some poor sucker at the BBC offices probably googled "otter" and grabbed the first image they found. Haha.
I really hope that this means I can see a wild otter one day. Not that me seeing an otter is the best thing about their recovery, but still. It would be nice.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Im surprised by the 'except Kent' bit. I've been told they put an artifical holt in at Canterbury and a quick google around which ended up on birdforum someone mention that they are in both of Kents major rivers and there was even a EA otter officer! (post 4 here: Recovery of otters continues as numbers increase five-fold - BirdForum)

[The Woodman]

And that was written back in 2003!

I think that the Kent comment must have been lost in translation and I look forward to reading the full report.

[alge]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

Im surprised by the 'except Kent' bit. I've been told they put an artifical holt in at Canterbury and a quick google around which ended up on birdforum someone mention that they are in both of Kents major rivers and there was even a EA otter officer! (post 4 here: Recovery of otters continues as numbers increase five-fold - BirdForum)

I saw an otter running alongside a farm track in Staplehurst this year, Staplehurst is a few miles from either the Medway of the Great stour, I know with fungi that to kent being a large county and is heavily under recorded for some species, Orchids, Birds, Insects tend to do well in surveys to the detriment of other wildlife. But then if the national data isn't showing much of what we have in the county will we suffer in the future? (there are some that are certain we still have red squirrels east of canterbury) Anyway sorry i have digressed. We do have otters in Kent for sure.

[The Woodman]

The full survey report published by the EA today can be found at

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk...ull_report.pdf

[STYRBJORN]

Bleedin' wonderful. The numbers are back up so the Torygraph can now start campaigning to re-introduce otter hunting to preserve fish stocks.
Could it be that I have a rather jaundiced view? Heaven forfend.

Ric

[Dogghound]

They always do this with asian short clawed, virtually every single otter image in a newspaper or in the media is this species.

Cheers for the report, I have contributed to this so will be interesting to read.