Otters in Norfolk, England

This video is about a wild otter in Thetford, Norfolk.

The otter‘s welcome return

Saturday 5th April 2014

PETER FROST tracks an otter in the backwaters of the Broads National Park and uncovers an interesting quirk of history

The tiny electric launch, the Electric Eel moved silently away from the jetty at How Hill on the river Ant in the heart of the Norfolk Broads National Park. We soon left the main river taking a tiny reed-fringed backwater.

The park ranger spotted it first – they always do – something slender, sleek and shiny swimming across the river. First guess was a mink, common enough to be a real pest in these waters.

It moved fast and looked bigger than a mink. As it scrambled on to the bank the whiskers and bright button nose made it plain this was that rarest of Broadland’s mammals – the wonderful otter (Lutra lutra).

After years of living on the brink of extinction in Britain, otters have made a dramatic comeback, and not just in the Broads.

You have a greater chance of seeing an otter on our riverbanks than at any time for half a century. Today otters are being spotted in virtually every river in every county.

Back in the 1970s, otters were nearly extinct. They have made an extraordinary comeback – and one linked to other improvements in our rivers, streams, canals and other watercourses.

Otters are playful and affectionate with their young, they float on their backs with pups on their stomachs. You may be lucky and see one sitting on the river bank meticulously eating a fish. A large dog otter or a pregnant female might eat as much as four pounds (2kg) of fish a day.

Much of the otter‘s popularity can be traced back to two important books about the species – Henry Williamson‘s 1927 novel Tarka the Otter and Gavin Maxwell‘s Ring of Bright Water.

Maxwell’s book, first published in 1960, was made into a popular film in 1969 when otters had almost disappeared from both English and Welsh rivers and were quite rare in the Scottish rivers where Maxwell had set his book and film. The film and book helped to win over public opinion in favour of the otter.

At this time the few surviving otters were still being hunted with packs of hounds. The murderous so-called sport was not made illegal until 1978.

Another major factor in the otters’ decline was the widespread use of DDT and other agricultural chemicals. They drained from farmland and poisoned waterways.

Those chemicals accumulated in fish and amphibians and poisoned the otter at the top of the riverbank food chain.

These chemicals, along with untreated sewage and industrial pollution, effectively killed our rivers.

The rivers too were being dredged and straightened, while banks were being tidied up and steel and concrete pilings were installed, replacing the soft otter-friendly reed fringes. It is hard to dig a holt in a concrete bank.

Those of us who wanted to see British otters had to journey north to Orkney, Shetland or the Highlands.

Banning DDT and the gradual improvement in river water quality started to make the news, although it was usually the return of fisherman’s salmon that made the headlines. But as the salmon returned, so did the otter.

Today even lucky city folk might see an otter on a early morning canal towpath walk.