Can you join the otter spotters?
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20th January, 2008
The Buckingham Advertiser, Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
BUCKINGHAM people can become trained otter spotters
in a new scheme to monitor local numbers of the elusive creature.
Recent
evidence of increasing numbers of otters visiting the Buckingham area
has led the conservation group BTCV to arrange a training course for
volunteers, who will help gather crucial information.
Susan Le, officer for the Buckingham Community Wildlife Project, said: "Although
otter populations were once in severe decline, they are now thought to
be making a comeback, but working out exactly how many otters there are
is the real challenge facing conservationists today in helping otters
to survive for the long-term.
"Otters have recently been recorded around the Bucking-ham area
but more information is desperately needed."
She said otters can now be found in several places upstream near
Bedford, and one has been re
corded on the west side of Buckingham, meaning the animal must have passed
through the town.
Initiatives by local landowners to control numbers of mink, a voracious
non-native predator, are thought to be assisting the return of otters
and other rare creatures such as water voles.
BTCV needs local people who can look for evidence of otters by the River
Great Ouse in Buckingham once a month. People living in the town can
attend a free training course on Saturday, February 23, as part of the
Buckingham Community Wildlife Project.
Volunteers will be shown how to spot signs of otters, and how to tell
them apart from other river creatures.
Trained volunteers can then choose to join a local group to survey for
evidence of otters in and around Bucking-ham.
Contact Susan Le at the BTCV conservation group on 01296 330033 or email
bcwp@btcv.org.uk to book a place on the course
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