Otter News Archive
Rare otter makes appearance in River Lambourn
Two golfers spotted the mammal nosing about in broad daylight
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5th March 2010
John Garvey
Newbury Weekly News, Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom
GOLFERS were astonished to see a normally secretive fellow nosing about their green in daylight - an otter.
Retired project manager Steve Gridley and friends were walking back from the 18th tee to the club house at Donnington Grove Golf Club when they were stunned to come across the rare mammal.
Fifty-two-year-old Mr Gridley, of Eddington, Hungerford, said: “It was sitting on a wooden footbridge. It was quite obviously an otter, even though I’ve never seen one in the wild before. It was huge.
“As soon as it saw us, it ran to the far side of the bridge, slid down the bank and into the water and disappeared. We just stood there in amazement.”
He added: “I knew they were re-colonising the Hungerford area but didn’t know they were in the River Lambourn. We saw it on February 11.”
Environment Agency spokesman Duncan Revell said: “This is fantastic news. The presence of otters is a very good indicator of the environmental health of a river.
“It reflects good water quality, habitat and food supply.”
In January last year, Newburytoday.co.uk featured amazing, night-time footage of an otter frolicking in the River Dun at Hungerford sent in by Newbury Weekly News reader Jeff Coultas.
The video camera also captured a stoat moments before the otter appeared.
Andy Coulson-Phillips, spokesman for the Berks Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust said at the time: “This must be the first recorded otter in this area for many years.
“However there are now many conservation projects aimed at restoring them by cleaning up the waterways.”
Retired electrician, Mr Coultas said he decided to film what was going on in the river at the end of his garden because he noticed the disappearance of a large number of fish.
He said: “I noticed some of my fish were disappearing and suspected mink were the culprits, so I set up a video camera to run overnight, the first night nothing, the next night I caught the Stoat followed by the Otter.”
Adult otters are solitary, nomadic creatures and very territorial. About 80 per cent of their diet is fish of which they eat around 1kg per day.
They have a particular preference for eels but will also eat frogs, toads, crayfish, waterfowl and even small mammals.
During the daytime they lie in secure resting sites, usually amongst tree roots or dense scrub.
Otters can breed at any time of the year although most cubs are born in winter.
Pregnant females require undisturbed breeding dens, called holts, where cubs will stay until they are three months old.
Unfortunately, the mortality rate for the young is high.