• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Observer

Stories of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle

  • Home
  • Sightline Stories
    • Solar in Jefferson County
    • Remembering Hartstown
  • COVID-19 Local Coverage

Primary Sidebar

Latest Stories

Shepherdstown Farmers Market Open for the Winter

January 16, 2021

CATF Shares Highlights of New Theater Online

January 16, 2021

Seeing & Hearing The Signs of New Beginnings

January 12, 2021

Coming Together to Talk Politics

January 4, 2021

Civics and Civility for Students

January 4, 2021

The Eastern Panhandle Transit Authority Rides Out The Pandemic

January 4, 2021

Talking Across Time & Space

January 4, 2021

Pancake Revisited

January 4, 2021

Reading Programs for All Ages at the Shepherdstown Library

January 4, 2021

Shade’s Farm Offers Local Honey Products & More

January 4, 2021

Bushel & Peck Receives Grant to Expand Operations

January 4, 2021

The Pandemic is Here & Now

December 22, 2020

In Print

Otters Are Back in our Rivers

November 11, 2018

Doug Pifer

On August 25, my wife and I saw a road-killed otter on Route 45 (between Martinsburg and Shepherdstown) near where it crosses the Opequon Creek.

We decided this was worth a second look and returned later. The animal was just over four feet long from nose to tail tip. Its fur was short, dense, and glossy. It was a dark, rich brown on the back, shading into silvery tan along the sides to nearly white underneath. The foot-long tail was thick at the base, tapering toward the tip. All four feet were webbed. The head was broad and flat with a broad nose pad and wide muzzle. Short and pointed, its ears were just visible through the fur. It was an adult male river otter.

Once common throughout the United States, river otters were heavily trapped during the nineteenth century when tall hats were in style for classy European and American gentlemen. Beaver and otter felt was the standard material for such hats. Otter became the ultimate standard for durability against which all other furs were compared.

After tall hats fell out of fashion in the 1900s, a new threat came to otters. Acid drainage from coal and other mineral mines polluted the waterways, killing aquatic life and destroying the river otter’s food source. By the 1950s, scarcely an otter was to be found except in the most remote mountain streams.

In the mid-1980s, we had begun to clean up our waterways. The native fish returned. State wildlife agencies began an otter reintroduction program. Captured with soft leg-hold traps in areas where otters were plentiful, wild river otters were transported and released into suitable watersheds with good fish populations. Otters started to increase.

Today, river otters hunt for fish and crayfish in the streams of almost every county of Virginia and West Virginia. But they’re secretive and elusive. Unless you’re lucky enough to encounter one swimming in a river, or killed on a highway as we did, it’s hard to tell they’re around.

River otters typically mark their territories with their feces, which are distinctively large and usually contain fish scales or crayfish shells. Such a sign is temporary and usually disappears fast, except for under bridges. This led to the river otter bridge survey technique used by biologists in the U.S., Canada, and Europe to determine the presence of river otters.

Otter bridge-site surveys are typically conducted in January or February. Teams of biologists explore the banks beneath the bridge and along both sides of the watercourse looking for feces, tracks in the mud or snow, and for sites where otters repeatedly slide through mud or snow on steep banks. Such surveys can’t determine how many otters there are, only their presence or absence.

Saving the river otter from near extinction is another wildlife-management success story. Now it’s possible to see a graceful otter gleefully sliding down a riverbank into the water.

By Doug Pifer

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

You Might Also Like:

Contact The Observer to submit a comment, send us a photo, share a story idea, or ask a question.

We encourage our readers to let us know about artists, musicians, craft-persons, merchants, restaurants, events, or places you want us to talk about.

If you want to write for The Observer or tell a story, let us know.

Footer

Local Coverage

  • Elections
  • COVID-19

Read Online

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Book Reviews
  • Community
  • Economy & Environment
  • Education
  • Government
  • Public Health

Sightline Stories

  • Solar in Jefferson County
  • Remembering Hartstown

Local

  • Events and Live Entertainment
  • Shepherdstown
  • Harpers Ferry & Bolivar
  • Charles Town & Ranson

The Observer

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Connect With Us
  • Print Issues
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook

Copyright © 2021 WV Independent Observer LLC · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.