Otter News Archive

River otters add to Platte River ecosystem

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17th March 2010

Robert Pore

The Grand Island Independent, Grant Island, Nebraska, USA

Every spring the skies of south Central Nebraska come alive with the sights and sounds of hundreds of thousands of migrating cranes, geese and other birds stopping over along the Platte River and the Rainwater Basin to fatten up for their long journey north.

But along the Platte River and other tributaries in the area, another wildlife success story can be found -- a thriving population of river otters.

And that success story has been one that has not garnished the kind of headlines that migrating birds do each year during their spring spectacular.

"A lot of people aren't aware that they (otters) are there," said Sam Wilson, nongame mammal/furbearer program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Native to Nebraska, Wilson said, the otters were "eliminated" in Nebraska early in the 20th century through overtrapping, unregulated shooting, draining of wetlands and other factors.

But beginning in 1986 through 1991, Nebraska Game and Parks, along with the help of trappers from other states, such as Alaska and Louisiana, where there were still river otter populations, trapped river otters and brought them to Nebraska, releasing them along the state's rivers and streams, such as the Platte River, where, Wilson said, there's good habitat for the river otters to re-establish themselves.

The North American river otters were the same species originally found in Nebraska more than 100 years ago.

About 30 of those transplanted otters were released near Grand Island along the Platte River back in the 1980s and 1990s, Wilson said.

"They took hold and they have slowly been expanding," he said.

The river otters were first listed, when they were introduced, as an endangered state species. But because hunting and trapping are now more regulated by state officials than they were 100 years ago and because of the habitat improvements that have been made, the river otters began adapting well to their new environment and their protective status was downgraded to state threatened species as they became more common in their new environment, Wilson said.

He said the river otter, an aquatic mammal, has a natural waterproof pelt that's highly valued by hunters and trappers.

Wilson said as a result of the program to reintroduce river otters in Nebraska, more than 20 years later, the population is expanding its range from the areas where it was introduced here in Nebraska in the 1980s.

"They are slowly expanding, but the good news is that where we reintroduced them in seven different areas (including two different areas along the Platte River), those areas still have otters," Wilson said.

He is studying the otters and how well they are adapting to Nebraska's landscape. He wants to determine how much area of the river each otter needs, or its home range. Wilson also wants to learn the animal's habitat use, such as what lakes, wetlands and rivers and streams are critical for the otter's successful adaptation.

The study is ongoing, but Wilson said preliminary results are showing that some otters travel great distances.

For example, he said a river otter trapped on the Platte River near Wood River and equipped with a radio tracking device was, at first, not located by researchers (the radio transmitters are only able to transmit about 400 to 500 yards).

"They can sometimes be difficult to find and we couldn't find this particular otter for some time," he said.

Then, a few months later, while flying in a plane over the Platte River near Columbus on a bird survey, they were able to locate that otter they tagged near Wood River.

"There was a good reason that we couldn't find him," Wilson said.

But it was also good news in the fact that the otters were expanding their range.

Wilson said a lot of the otter's success in readapting to Nebraska has been the great improvements made in habitat restoration by government agencies, such as Game and Parks; private organizations, such as Nature Conservancy and The Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust; and farmers who are helping to restore valuable wetlands that benefit not only the otters and migrating birds, but many other species of animals, insects and plants vital to a healthy river ecosystem.

Also, the effort to control the growth of invasive weed species along the river, such as phragmites, has helped to restore the river's ecosystem to benefit wildlife, such as the otters and cranes.

Wilson said there's still a lot to learn about how the river otters are adapting in Nebraska and their long-term survival.

"Once we figure out how much space the otters need and what types of habitats they prefer, we'll know the right kinds of habitat to create to promote a healthy otter population," he said.

To continue the research Wilson and others are doing to continue the successful adaptation of the river otter in Nebraska, he encourages people to donate a portion of their state tax return by checking off the box on the tax form for wildlife. The money goes to the Game and Parks wildlife conservation fund.

"The otters are a native species and an important part of the ecosystem," Wilson said. "They are a really cool animal that when people have an opportunity to see the animal it gets them really excited. If you have kids out and fishing and an otter swims by or if you are in a blind waiting for cranes and an otter swims by, it is something people don't forget."

To learn more about the river otter program being conducted by Nebraska Game and Parks, visit their Web site at http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/wildlife.asp