The British population of the Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra has shown a serious decline since 1957-1958. In England the surviving population is broken into small fragments which may not be viable. One way to strengthen the population to enable it to recover would be to insert breeding units into the gaps. A practical methodology using captive-bred Otters in groups of three is described. This was tested successfully in 1983-1985 in East Anglia, with the first two release groups now breeding. The male in the 1983 group was tracked using a radio harness to be sure of survival and to monitor behaviour and use the environment. Data were obtained on the development of a home range in the new environment. Also, useful information was gathered on swimming and hunting speeds, time of emergence, distance travelled each night, activity periods and time spent in each habitat. This behaviour is compared to that of previously tracked wild Otters in Scotland. The very close similarity of many features is encouraging and results may be taken as indicative of the behaviour of wild Otters in lowland Britain.

No abstract

When the Otter Trust was set up in the UK in 1972, one of its long-term intentions was to restore European otters to suitable wild habitat. In 1982, this aim came to fruition with the release of three captive-bred otters into a river in East Anglia. These otters have now bred in the wild and further releases continue to add to the success of the project. The author is Chairman of the Otter Trust.

No abstract

No abstract