Landscape and River Otters

[ronwoodcraft]

I went to take this landscape picture from a neighbors driveway bridge and noticed that someone had dumped several good sized fish off the bridge. They were easy to see on the bottom of the creek in about three feet of water... While I was taking landscape pictures I noticed the otters below dragging the largest fish from the bottom up on the big rock and began chowin' down on it. They ended up on the rock almost under the bridge I was on so had to use the live view on the camera to look slightly under the bridge for this picture.

 

[robertk]

Winner, winner, catfish dinner!

Beautiful scenery.

 

[PikesPeakCharlie]

Love the otters !! Great pics !!!

 

[Chilli]

Beautiful looking place. Someone's built a little rock dam on the creek.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Otters are the coolest critter in the river....

Don't know about the dead catfish (now dinner), but up here the salmon hatcheries
save all the salmon that come in, and once dead they load them into huge tote bins,
and then a local group of volunteers take them out and toss them back into the
rivers at various points. Apparently, dead fish rotting are vital to the health of the river
and the plants, etc.

 

[ToddsPoint]

River otters were extinct here for many years. The state decided to reintroduce them and picked my township as one of the places for release. They quickly found all the local farm ponds and wiped out all the fish. After the fish were gone the otters disappeared. Most of the ponds haven’t been restocked. Thanks for nothing IL Dept of Conservation.🤷🏼

 

[tamrock]

River otters were extinct here for many years. The state decided to reintroduce them and picked my township as one of the places for release. They quickly found all the local farm ponds and wiped out all the fish. After the fish were gone the otters disappeared. Most of the ponds haven’t been restocked. Thanks for nothing IL Dept of Conservation.🤷🏼

Funny how some things go when people try they're own idea in assisting mother nature. I watched a show on the history channel last night about these rouge hippos courtesy of Poblo Escobar

 

[Chilli]

Funny how some things go when people try they're own idea in assisting mother nature. I watched a show on the history channel last night about these rouge hippos courtesy of Poblo Escobar

Heard about those. Our idiotic thing was the introduction of cane toads to combat the cane beetles. They have been an environmental disaster up in the northern parts of Australia ☹️

 

[tamrock]

Heard about those. Our idiotic thing was the introduction of cane toads to combat the cane beetles. They have been an environmental disaster up in the northern parts of Australia ☹️

They gassed a prairie dog colony to build a new city building long a in town. Word got out about and nany of the residents of Boulder county Colorado were outraged and made a lot of noise. So with that when a new water treatment plant was needed, they decided to relocate the prairie dogs in the natural buffalo and gama grasses open field behind me. The dug out trenches with a ditch witch and put flexible pvc pipes open on each end of the surface. Putting a small cage on each opening they added the relocated varmits. After about six or so months the prairie dogs adapted to their new environment. Now the field is stripped bare with weeds growing here and there. Little did these stupid know what's best self proclaimed lovers of nature folks didn't take into account was all the bull snakes, garter snake, sagebrush lizards and field mice needed those grasses to hunt and hide in. The prairie dogs stripped everything and now all the smaller critters had no place to hide the birds of prey came in and ate em all up. 😪

 

[newnan man]

There are a lot of otters here in Florida. They have an abundance if creeks, rivers and lakes to live and eat in. They love raiding small ponds in rural areas. Years ago a friend had a small pond he stocked with Koi, they didn't last long.

 

[Chilli]

They gassed a prairie dog colony to build a new city building long a in town. Word got out about and nany of the residents of Boulder county Colorado were outraged and made a lot of noise. So with that when a new water treatment plant was needed, they decided to relocate the prairie dogs in the natural buffalo and gama grasses open field behind me. The dug out trenches with a ditch witch and put flexible pvc pipes open on each end of the surface. Putting a small cage on each opening they added the relocated varmits. After about six or so months the prairie dogs adapted to their new environment. Now the field is stripped bare with weeds growing here and there. Little did these stupid know what's best self proclaimed lovers of nature folks didn't take into account was all the bull snakes, garter snake, sagebrush lizards and field mice needed those grasses to hunt and hide in. The prairie dogs stripped everything and now all the smaller critters had no place to hide the birds of prey came in and ate em all up. 😪

That's crazy. Your right, often these so called animal lovers are clueless as to the potential outcome of what they do. They unfortunately have the loudest voices though don't they.

 

[signal_line]

Be careful, otters can attack you and if you are in the water you will not win the fight.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Be careful, otters can attack you and if you are in the water you will not win the fight.

That would be extremely rare, IMO. If you pick a fight with it, that's different,
but in general I doubt an otter would be aggressive towards humans.

"Back in the day" I trapped a few otters...in retrospect, wish I hadn't, but
times (and I) were different back then. Toughest critter there is to skin,
as they are nearly solid muscle under that fur.

 

[djackson7348]

Outstanding photos! Thanks for sharing.

 

[CreekSide]

I went to take this landscape picture from a neighbors driveway bridge and noticed that someone had dumped several good sized fish off the bridge. They were easy to see on the bottom of the creek in about three feet of water... While I was taking landscape pictures I noticed the otters below dragging the largest fish from the bottom up on the big rock and began chowin' down on it. They ended up on the rock almost under the bridge I was on so had to use the live view on the camera to look slightly under the bridge for this picture.

What state?

 

[ronwoodcraft]

Winner, winner, catfish dinner!

Beautiful scenery.

Thank You Robert!

 

[ronwoodcraft]

Love the otters !! Great pics !!!

Thanks Charlie!

 

[ronwoodcraft]

Beautiful looking place. Someone's built a little rock dam on the creek.

Yes, it's been dry for a long time and the creek is as low as I've ever seen it. People that live there built the dam and spend a lot of time in the creek in the summer.

 

[ronwoodcraft]

Otters are the coolest critter in the river....

Don't know about the dead catfish (now dinner), but up here the salmon hatcheries
save all the salmon that come in, and once dead they load them into huge tote bins,
and then a local group of volunteers take them out and toss them back into the
rivers at various points. Apparently, dead fish rotting are vital to the health of the river
and the plants, etc.

Thanks Mike, I don't know where the catfish came from.. As far as I know people go to Brownlee reservoir a couple hundred mile south of here to fish for them.

 

[ronwoodcraft]

That would be extremely rare, IMO. If you pick a fight with it, that's different,
but in general I doubt an otter would be aggressive towards humans.

"Back in the day" I trapped a few otters...in retrospect, wish I hadn't, but
times (and I) were different back then. Toughest critter there is to skin,
as they are nearly solid muscle under that fur.

I herd about a woman in Montana getting chewed on a while back when she was swimming. That's the only one I've heard of. Every time I see these animals I agree with you. I deeply regret trapping them thirty years ago. I'm posting a link to the otter attack story.. It is a very rare thing to happen, but..... https://www.themeateater.com/conser...s-three-women-in-montana-while-floating-river