Otter News Archive

Elusive, solitary and cloaked in lore – the Otter

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2nd March 2010

John Paul Tiernan

The Mayo News, Westport, County Mayo, Ireland

The sea is cold and quiet these weeks; a freshening visit to the shore seems for many unnecessary. Endless icy weather streams from the north can be off-putting. Marine life is consulted and found through other means in spells such as these.

One mammal that is represented in more than its fair share of poetry and literature is the otter. Its scientific name is the musical Lutra lutra. In the west, it is sometimes given the not-very-wild-sounding moniker of water dog. Occasional west-Mayo resident Michael Longley highlighted some of the otter’s ecology in the conclusion of a poem about mortality:

I watched a dying otter gaze right through me
At the islands in Clew Bay, as though it were only
Between hovers and not too far from the holt.

The holt is the otter’s home constructed in the river bank; a hover a resting place for passing a part of the day. Lutra lutra is one of our most intriguing marine animals, perhaps because it is not marine at all. It’s cousin, the Californian otter, is restricted to the sea, but Ireland’s otter is as terrestrial as we are. Its forays to the shore are a consequence of living beside the tide – if it is born to an inland holt it will only know the bog runs and freshwater streams of that area.

The otter’s diet is also as varied as ours and will switch from fish to shellfish and urchins if fish are hard to come by – which increasingly happens due to coastal pollution. A study of otter spraints (droppings) in Clare Island in 2007 by a student of NUIG’s Department of Zoology suggested seaweed may even form part of their diet at times.

The mystery and strong tradition of lore surrounding these creatures may also stem from their impressive elusiveness. I can count only two sightings: one jumping in the kelp on a sheltered shore; another running bravely along an exposed beach and ultimately into the small waves where it turned to face us and mocked my curious dog.

If the halting northeasterlies turn back to the southwest quarter and the shore is welcoming again, look out for the otter in areas where freshwater comes close to the sea. The otter needs to rinse the salt from its dense fur after a fishing session to maintain the coat’s insulation. The low duachs west of Louisburgh, or townlands beginning with Barna, like Barnatra near Erris(‘Barna’ means passage to the sea as Gaeilge) are good places to catch sight of otters returning from the tide at sunset.

The Eurasian Otter
The Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra) is a semi-aquatic mammal from the family Mustelidae.
Otters are usually territorial solitary mammals, except in the case of a family group consisting of a nurturing female and cubs.
They grow to over 1 metre in length, and a large adult can weigh as much as 12kg. They have five webbed toes on each foot and a powerful, rudder-like tail that aids swimming. Their claws are sharp and strong for gripping food, such as eels, and they have especially powerful jaws.
The home range of otters is 3-4 kilometres in coastal populations.
Otter numbers have declined in Europe throughout the 20th century, and they are extinct in much of central Europe. The otter is protected in Ireland by both the Wildlife Act 1976 and the Wildlife Amendment Act 2000.