Otter News Archive

Tracks, marks spotted near Dexter

Read original. . .
Previous | Archive Index | Next

10th March, 2008

Geoff Larcom

The Ann Arbor News, Michigan, USA

There was fresh snow, and the water was running high one day last month in the creek behind Marty Kapanowski's house near Dexter.

As he often does, Kapanowski, an avid naturalist and tracker, went to look for activity around the stream.

What he saw excited him. Some animal had created dragging, trough-like marks in the slush, with footprints every four to six feet. He recognized the marks from several tracking books he owned.

It appeared the tracks came from a river otter, an animal naturalists say largely disappeared from the Washtenaw County area nearly a century ago.

"It's kind of neat,'' says Kapanowski, an engineer at Ford Motor Company, who lives next to a tributary of Mill Creek, which feeds into the Huron River. "People just don't see otters out in the woods.''

He quickly took some pictures of his find and sent them to fellow enthusiasts on an e-mail list and to several experts, including Faye Stoner, a naturalist for the Washtenaw County Parks Department.

Stoner went out to check the tracks, which appeared too big for a much-smaller beaver or muskrat, and showed no evidence of a beaver's wide tail. She figured it was an otter, too. "I wouldn't bet a paycheck, but I almost would,'' she says.

Otters have a long, round, tubular body, enabling them to sort of paddle and slide when they travel over slick surfaces such as snow. They range from 37 inches to 51 inches long from nose to tip of the tail, and can weigh from 10 to 30 pounds.

They live where there is a permanent food supply and easy access to water. They can tolerate a variety of environments, including cold and warmer areas, but disappear from areas with polluted waters, experts say.

They are fun to watch and are intelligent and playful animals. "It's very cool to find it,'' Stoner said.

Otters aren't typically seen in southeastern Michigan, but remain common in northern areas of the state, Stoner said. Naturalists have also successfully introduced Otters in Ohio, she said.

A recent survey by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources reported about 1,000 otters trapped in Michigan during 2006. None were trapped in Washtenaw County, but two were captured in Livingston County, according to the survey.

The creature lived in the area during the 1800s, but moved north as heavy trapping began. By around 1910, otters had disappeared from the Huron, Raisin and Saline rivers in Washtenaw County, Stoner said, quoting from the book "Michigan Mammals'' by Rollin Baker.

But otters could start reappearing more as trapping pressures ease and water quality improves, said Phil Myers, an associate professor and curator of mammals at the University of Michigan who also saw Kapanowski's pictures.

"I think that the area could certainly support otters, especially if people will leave them alone,'' Myers said. "It's just another sign that communities of wild mammals are recovering in this area.''