Share page
Slideshow |
||
To copy the photo to the clipboard, ClickTap on the thumbnail above and select Copy image.
to see the regular River otter page ▶
We were eager to see otters after we moved to the lake, but it was a while before we had any sightings ourselves. We were however encouraged as we came across a number of signs of otters around the lake.
The run and slide is very characteristic of the otter; they take a few steps and then slide on their belly, and then keep repeating. The tracks left on a snow covered lake surface are very clear and obvious.
After we discovered obvious otter scat on the perimeter path around our land we set up a trail camera to monitor the spot. We scored a number of otters recorded on the trail camera before we ever saw one ourselves.
A daylight capture on our trail camera. (An animated GIF combining several still shots.)
In March 2019 I snowshoed to the ridge at the north-west of the northern part of North Otter Lake, opposite the Scout camp, where I had seen otter tracks before. I descended down to a small lake and found otter trails starting at an otter-sized hole in the lake ice. I followed these trails for a considerable distance through the bush to another small lake where there was a well used access hole through the lake ice at the face of a beaver dam. I then followed the stream back down to North Otter lake, seeing more otter trails along that stream. But I never did see any otters.
Since taking up residence at The Ottery in 2014 we have been noticing an ever increasing number of places where it appears otters hang out to eat the clams they harvest from the lake. This would indicate the population has been increasing in that time, a fact born out by the increasing number of sightings of otters. This pile of clam shells seems to indicate a favourite place for an otter to stop and eat.