Otter News Archive

Dead otter found near bridge

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23rd April, 2008

Dylan Darling

The Record Searchlight, Redding, California, USA

Although a dead otter found lying across the fog line of Highway 44 on Tuesday morning was out of the ordinary, a state road official and a scientist say that the critter likely wasn't a casualty of nearby bridge construction.

The unusual roadkill caught the eye of many motorists, including Kelsey Wederbrook, who saw it about 7:45 a.m. when she was heading from west Redding to Palo Cedro for work.

"I've lived here since I was 5 years old and I've never seen a dead otter," said Wederbrook, 22.

While he said it is unfortunate that a river otter apparently was hit by a vehicle, Tom Balkow, senior environmental planner in the state Department of Transportation's Redding office, said he doesn't think the start of the Dana to Downtown project earlier this month was a factor in the animal's death.

"They can always go up or downstream if they need to," he said.

He said he didn't think the animal, even if spooked by construction work, would decide to cross the bridge.

"They are pretty skittish creatures -- they are not going to hang around where there are people," he said.

Or traffic.

The animal was found on Highway 44's eastbound lanes about a quarter-mile east of the Auditorium Drive overcrossing, west of the highway's Sacramento River Bridge. Staging for the three-year, $66 million bridge overhaul started earlier this month. The work includes the pouring of gravel into the river and clearing of brush along the riverbank to make room for equipment.

While wildlife was taken into consideration when planning the project, the focus was on salmon -- work in the water is limited to when the fish aren't spawning -- and bald eagles. Caltrans' effort to move a pair of bald eagles that nests near the highway last fall drew flak from the birds and eagle fans, making the duo local celebrities.

The eagles Patriot and Liberty won back their nest from a plastic cone that Caltrans had wired into it in an effort to shoo them away and are now parents of a pair of eaglets.

Meanwhile, leading the vote for eaglet names on Redding.com are Conehead, with a whopping 39 percent of the 332 votes as of Tuesday, and Freedom, which had 19 percent. Other suggested names called in to the Record Searchlight include Stars and Stripes, as well as Sunny and Bridgett -- in honor of the Sundial Bridge.

The eagle nest is about two football fields away from where the dead otter was found.

Craig Martz, an environmental scientist for the state Department of Fish and Game's Redding office who saw the dead otter Tuesday morning, said he also didn't think the construction caused the otter's death.

"It's unusual, but it's not unheard of," he said.

Martz said he has seen otters feeding on fish in a small pond near where the dead otter was found.

While rare, he said he has also seen muskrats and beavers also end up as roadkill.

"It's just amazing the diversity of wildlife that gets hit on state highways and county roads, too," he said.

California Highway Patrol officer Ron Kritzer cleared the otter from the road by tossing it into nearby brush just before 11 a.m. With clearing roadkill part of his daily duties, Kritzer agreed that the otter was a rare find.

I've never seen one up on the roadway," he said.