The reason behind concluding the ‘otter post’ titles with a question mark is that of being uncertain if we truly have resident otters in our area.
This is the second observation this spring (At last – an otter in our town? (Apr 28, 2024)) of an animal which could have been an otter in the river right on the border of our town.
The observation of May 22 seemed more conclusive (see below) due to activities that are specific to otters and not to beavers with which I could have confused the first individual observed (Apr 28).
These two observations were made almost a month apart and within half a kilometre between the sites which suggests that the otter has taken residence in the area.
Also, it is very likely that dispersal activity has ceased (most cubs probably leave their mother’s range before she has given birth to the new litter and, in cold regions like Latvia, parturition should occur in May – June) and any individuals observed in the second part of May could be residents or temporary residents (floaters without a fixed range that nevertheless have rather specific if large-range haunts).
On May 22, the observation was made downstream from the Apr 28 observation site, in a slightly more disturbed habitat which is, nevertheless, a part of the general ‘private garden allotment/orchard/hayfield/riparian forest’ area.
In the specific reach, there was a riparian forest on one bank of the river and a private house bordering a hayfield on the other (with very few shrubs and trees on that side).
We were sitting quietly intent on observing beavers when some racket arose downstream from us.
A tufted duck mother with her ducklings, quacking excitedly, abandoned their shelter between taller riparian grasses and, in a swift flight/run, crossed the rapids and approached us at great speed.
At first, I thought little of it because these tufted duck mums are very vigilant and they often leave their former hang-outs with much ruckus and drama even if, at the time, there has been no true cause to alarm.
In fact, it appears to me that the quacking by the mother, serves as a sort of a cheerleading form to inspire the little ones to follow quickly and unitedly.
When these ducks leisurely float downstream, the ducklings tend to scatter in smaller groups and I have even observed a single duckling curiously inspecting a muddy upshore trail that a beaver had used mere minutes ago to ascend to its foraging location.
If the mother duck wishes to get the entire group from one place to another, in an organized manner, without anybody straying, the dramatic quacking and speedy ‘flight’ could serve the purpose.
Thereby, I am used to making observations of very intense duck family journeys that are not begun out of some special circumstance, neither they are ended in one.
Accordingly, I just watched the family expecting it to swim/run/fly by (the mother sometimes swims, sometimes half-flies but the ducklings often run on the surface of the water).
However, I realized that the family was being followed by an animal who was apparently chasing the ducklings and whose head and arched back bobbed out from the water and back into it (in an ‘undulating’ fashion).
The animal was large (this time, having observed it closely, I realized it was the size of a beaver yearling which implies that if it was an otter, it could have been a young otter, as well, or a female) and it was clearly in pursuit after the duck family.
I find it very hard to imagine that a beaver would chase after ducks at a distance of > 150 metres.
Beavers tend to demonstrate their annoyance (e.g., if a duck family had obstructed the entrance to their den or passage back into water from a foraging site) by slapping their tails and there was no tail slapping at any point during this observation.
Tail slapping is the first response to nuisance/threat and even if the beaver, for some reason, would have decided to chase the ducks off (which I have never witnessed and, mostly, beavers have been swimming or foraging in direct proximity to ducks, including duck families not being bothered even by the din they at times raise), such behaviour would have followed a warning splash.
Also, why would a beaver pursue a duck family in the first place expending precious energy? I have never observed anything that would imply – beavers take delight in chasing other species (even other beavers) and that this could be a play-type of situation/pastime for the youth.
Beavers do not bob out of the water and back again, either. They tend to swim in a very dignified, smooth fashion.
However, this animal was crossing rapids and the turbulent water might have either caused it to alter it swimming method and/or it could have created impression that there was more bobbing than there was.
The turbulence is not very intense, and I find this explanation not that probable.
It seemed that the animal was hunting the ducks, and there are only two semi-aquatic species that could do so on this river, namely, (American) mink and otters.
Mink are much smaller and they also tend to swim smoothly. Besides, I believe they rather stalk and pick the ducklings up from the shore rather than giving a water chase but many behaviours are possible (e.g., if the initial attack on the shore was unsuccessful but the hunter was too enticed to give up).
I find it difficult to believe it was a mink due to this animal’s size and swimming motion (unless it was some sort of a Super Mutant Ninja Mink).
I also believe I took notice of a rather ‘square’ (stubby, broad) head while beavers have a more elongated, narrower, somewhat pointed muzzles.
The entire mobile spectacle, by then, had reached our hide-out.
The duck family was within centimetres from us but the otter (?) was about 2 metres from us.
My dog is very well-behaved around wildlife but the proximity of the scene (and perhaps the context of a hunt vs. an idle chase she could sense) was proven a bit too much and she stood up.
The ducks were not bothered (we were probably a lesser factor of consideration in their immediate concerns) but the otter (?), having taken notice of the shape of my dog on the shore, at once dived in and swam back.
After some distance, it popped its head out of the water to look back at us, and then dived in again.
This was also different from what would be expected from beavers who would probably have slapped their tail at us and who would not have been as alarmed seeing us there (they know that we tend to observe them in that area).
My dog’s behaviour, similarly, indicated that it had not been a beaver.
She is closely familiar with beavers and their scent. If we stumble upon a beaver on the shore, my dog is very polite and reserved in her manners.
This time, my dog was sniffing intensely near where the otter (?) had approached the shore closely.
It was apparent that my dog was interested in the scent to the degree that she might have never smelled anything like it before (and we have not met any otters, nor we have discovered their spraints).
The otter (?) disappeared downstream and some quacking by what appeared a single mallard male ensued.
In about 10 minutes (5 minutes after the mallard had ceased its alarm), the tufted duck family, discontented with the habitat patch opportunities upstream, sought to move back downstream but the mother was being far more cautious than usual – swimming from one small ‘bay’ (formed by reeds and some sandy shoreline) into another and not being able to choose where the family would have its best shelter and forage.
Having largely dismissed the scenario of a beaver, for some bewildering reason, chasing after ducks as well as the possibility of a superlarge mink living on our river, I must conclude that I witnessed a hunting effort by a Eurasian otter who tried to catch some tufted ducklings.
Due to the fact that the otter was observed in late May and it could have been the same otter observed in the end of April – in the same area (within ca. 0.5 km of river channel), I happily assume that there is a resident otter in our area.
Notes by Ieva 