Otters of Amelia North American river otters are found all around the United States, almost anywhere where there is fresh water to drink, suitable cover to hide in and a ready supply of fish, crabs, crayfish and frogs to eat. Believe it or not, this description still applies to Amelia Island, despite the ever-encroaching threats of concrete, asphalt and vehicular traffic. River otters range widely up and down the island, hanging out in the marina and traveling along the freshwater areas of the Egan's Creek Greenway to find mates and seasonal food sources. Anyone lucky enough to have a freshwater retention pond in their neighborhood may also see these mammals when they make periodic visits along their travels by land to swim and drink fresh water.
A river otter "periscopes" to watch a human. For at least the past five years a particular group of three large otters has been regularly sighted up and down the length of Amelia Island. Dubbed "The Three Stooges" by locals, these three are often seen slipping along drainage ditches, from retention pond to retention pond, and usually cross roads through drainage pipes, avoiding collisions with cars. Although most river otters are difficult to identify as individuals, three large adult otters is a strange grouping and makes this group distinctive. Based on studies elsewhere, such a group is most likely a group of adult male siblings, a clan, so to speak. At some point in their travels they might individually break away to mate with a female, but soon enough they abandon this pairing and end up in the company of their brothers once again. River otters are social creatures that enjoy each other's company. Males and females, when not breeding, hang out in same-sex groups, but females alone raise their families. Baby otters are born blind and helpless, and the mothers tend to them in a secure den that may be underground or just securely hidden in deep cover. For the first two months of their lives, the baby otters stay hidden inside, while the mother comes and goes to nurse them and keep them clean. Then the fun starts! Just about the time the youngsters are becoming interested in chewing prey items, they also become interested in exploring their environment. From this point on, keeping them in the den is impossible. Their exuberant spirit leads them into all sorts of trouble, and their mother has a hard time restraining them. Before long, the mother otter must teach them to swim. Surprisingly, otters are born with a fear of water. Baby otters younger than two months old will drown if submerged accidentally.
Four river otters visit a retention pond in the middle of Amelia Island. Once they are out of the den, though, the swimming lessons begin. The mother otter drags the pup into the water again and again, ignoring its yelps of distress, as it crawls out to familiar land once again. Eventually, the mother takes a dramatic stance and drags the pup out to deep water, and then just swims away from it. Sink or swim. That's when instinct overrides panic, and the cub sees for itself how much fun water is. From then on, there's no turning back. An aquatic mammal is born again.
Pat Foster-Turley spent years raising orphaned river otters at a
California zoo. Baby otters stay with their mother for nine months or more - as long as it takes to fully learn their territory, the various locations of suitable food sources, and the hazards and challenges of living in their world. Female offspring may stay with their mothers longer than this, and sometimes daughters with their own babies will rejoin their mother and her sisters to form maternal groups. Otter groups ebb and flow over the course of a year. Sometimes one or more breaks off from its group and goes on a journey. Sometimes the whole family and kin meet up at a good food source and have a reunion. Throughout their travels, they keep in touch using scent marks at the main intersections of their environment, the pond edges, and game trails and road crossings that intersect their territories. Otters mark significant places in their world with carefully placed scats (feces) that hold oily deposits from their musk glands. These scent-marks are known to carry information about the sex, individual identity, time of passing, food source proximity and other facts that are important to the otters in the area. Around the world various species of otters are the subject of widespread study as indicators of healthy wetlands. Biologists have perfected the art of surveying otters by locating the scent marks. With modern technology, even scientists can now read some of the scent messages in these scats, and can get an idea of how many otters inhabit a given area, for conservation purposes.
Two otters clinch one another. If you want to find river otters on Amelia Island, you can take a hint from otter biologists. Take a walk down the Egans Greenway or Willow Pond in Fort Clinch State Park, and with diligence, you might find an otter crossing route, marked with piles of fish bone and crustacean shell scats, with a distinct musky smell. Then you know an area to watch, with patience, and maybe you'll get lucky. But, an even easier way to spot otters on Amelia Island is to spend some time around the downtown Fernandina Beach marina. Although this is a salt water habitat, river otters can survive nicely here, in between longer travels down the island, since there are plenty of freshwater sources in nearby areas. What they come to the marina for is food, and from an otter's viewpoint it's a virtual banquet here, what with all the bait cutting, fish-cleaning activities of the humans here. Yes, otters are still on Amelia Island, and they are a thrill to watch for those fortunate enough to see them. But, beware, the future of our otters is in jeopardy. As Amelia Island becomes more developed, from a human perspective, it becomes less inhabitable for otters and other wildlife that need to travel to find unrelated mates. Otters, like other animals, cannot mate with close family members for many generations before they go the way of the dinosaurs. They must be able to move through a freshwater wildlife corridor mid-island to find others of their species, and this corridor is getting more and more restricted and unconnected. The Three Stooges have survived through these changes and know all the routes through pipes and across roads up and down the island. But when these routes close and the Three Stooges die of old age, there just may not be more otters to replace them. So, enjoy the otters when you see them, and feel grateful that they are still with us. It may not be for long, though, unless people band together to save those last bits of freshwater habitat and the wildlife corridor that they need to survive. Pat Foster-Turley is a Ph.D. zoologist, and writes a weekly nature column on Wednesday for the News-Leader. Feel free to contact her at patandbucko@yahoo.com to report your nature observations.
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