A rare sighting of river otters frolicking in the Maumee River near Providence Metropark earlier this month gave Claire Wallace so much joy about the wonderment of nature that she almost felt like a schoolgirl again.
That sudden rush of adrenaline people get from seeing wildlife in a natural setting shot through her veins, though she had the presence of mind and hands steady enough to slowly reach for her cell phone, turn on its video camera, and start recording. She and her fiance, Nick Krabill, instinctively knew it was a magical moment and they needed to remain as motionless as possible for as long as they could.
The video she recorded is less than 90 seconds long, but it has been seen by thousands of people on YouTube, a Metroparks blog, and on many social media posts. Viewers can hear a pair of otters chirp and see them climb out of the water briefly on a tree branch near the Maumee’s shoreline, then slip back into the water.
“Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Look at that,” Miss Wallace whispered incredulously about halfway through the video, trying not to say anything that might scare the otters but also unable to restrain herself completely.
A question that has emerged since her video went viral: Why aren’t there more river otter sightings in northwest Ohio?
Chances are, there will be soon.
A lot of people don’t know they’re here, though.
Scott Carpenter, Metroparks Toledo’s spokesman, said the park district has been told about Maumee River otter sightings over the years within Side Cut, Farnsworth, and Bend View Metroparks in addition to Miss Wallace’s recent one from Providence. But Mr. Carpenter said he’s been trying to spot them himself for more than 20 years now and hasn’t succeeded.
■ They tend to live alone or in pairs, but socialize and may travel in groups.
■ A group of otters on land is called a romp. A group of otters in the water is called a raft. Baby otters are called pups.
■ They can run as fast as 19 mph on land. Sprinter Usain Bolt, by comparison, got up to 27.5 mph briefly when he set a world record for the 100-meter dash in 2009.
■ They can stay underwater for as many as eight minutes at a time and can close their nostrils for deep dives.
■ Their long whiskers are used to detect prey in dark or cloudy water, and their clawed feet are used for grasping onto slippery prey. Their sharp teeth shear fish and even crustaceans in no time.
■ They travel as many as 26 miles a day.
■ Males move around from mate to mate. Females raise pups on their own. Families stay intact for at least seven or eight months, or until the birth of a new litter. Litters are typically one to six pups.
■ They vocalize with whistles, growls, chuckles, chirps, and screams. They also communicate through scent markings using paired scent glands near the base of their tails that put out strong, musky odors.
■ Life expectancy is 8 to 9 years in the wild. In captivity, they can live to be 25.
Sources: Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute; Euclid Public Library; Treehugger; The New York Times; YouTube; Akron Zoo, and Ohio DNR.
River otters also have been spotted in water at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Magee Marsh, and in the Blanchard River near Findlay.
Something about them captures the public’s imagination, which is kind of odd if you think about it.
Otters are part of the weasel family. Quick, name another weasel that draws as much human affection as otters...
At almost every zoo in North America, otters are among the more popular attractions. They’re cute. They’re playful. They put on a good show.
But in the wild, they’re elusive.
Not as elusive as Bigfoot, mind you, but hardly as common as deer.
The belief is that their numbers will continue getting stronger across Ohio if water quality continues to improve.
River otters once lived all across North America. But by the early 1900s, the species was extirpated — a nice way of saying destroyed — in Ohio and other states because of habitat loss and unregulated trapping starting in the mid-1800s.
From 1986 to 1993, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources had a reintroduction program.
Forty-seven pregnant female river otters and 76 males captured from Arkansas and Louisiana were set loose along four eastern Ohio waterways: the Grand River in Trumbull County, Killbuck Creek in Wayne and Holmes counties, Stillwater Creek in Harrison County, and the Little Muskingum River in Washington County.
The state DNR’s most recent harvest and monitoring report, issued in December, 2020, said river otters had migrated into 84 of Ohio’s 88 counties. But Sara Zaleski, a wildlife research technician at the agency’s district office in Findlay, told The Blade on Friday it is now believed they’re in almost all 88 counties.
Those that have found their way into northwest Ohio might have come south from Michigan or east from Indiana, the latter of which had a reintroduction program from 1995 to 2000.
“There’s been more interest in them as people are seeing them more and more often,” Ms. Zaleski said.
Like a lot of wildlife, their cuteness is something humans can only enjoy from a distance.
River otters travel in pairs or families. They usually sense human presence and leave before you can get too close, which speaks to the rarity of Miss Wallace’s video.
“As with any wild animal, we suggest you give it a lot of space,” Ms. Zaleski said. “They will swim and run away if you get too close. It’s fairly common for them to notice people and take off if they feel threatened.”
Otter attacks on humans are rare, though not unprecedented.
According to a study published 12 years ago by a five-member research team, the state with most otter attacks is Florida and most have occurred since 1990. Otters “are known to be very territorial,” and the theory is that they become more defensive when their habitat shrinks as a result of human overdevelopment and intrusion.
In some cases, victims of bite wounds and scratches got rabies from otters, and at least one person required 200 stitches.
According to another study, otter numbers have rebounded enough to support trapping in most states, including Ohio.
As of 2016, 40 states had legal harvesting, the report said.
Only two states, Arizona and Washington, were unable to provide trending data. Twenty-two reported increasing populations during that 2016 study, with 25 others telling researchers their otter populations appeared to have stabilized.
That study also said 23 states had conducted river otter reintroductions as of 2016.
Otters’ primary value to trappers is their pelts for the fur industry.
Ohio limits trapping to three otters per year in more densely populated eastern parts of the state. Elsewhere, Ohio limits trappers to one otter per year, Zaleski said.
River otters occasionally are seen using private backyard ponds.
“They may stop there for a meal, but won’t likely live there,” Ms. Zaleski said.
Homeowners with such ponds are encouraged to install underwater structures for fish to use as shelter from otters and other predators, if they don’t already have such devices in place, she said.
Otters feed primarily on fish, frogs, and crayfish. To a lesser extent, they’ll eat turtles, mussels, snakes, muskrats, and waterfowl.
Rebecca Lewis, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge visitor services specialist, said people seem to be finding river otters more often now at a couple of places in the refuge, especially about an hour after sunrise.
She predicts there will “definitely” be more sightings across northwest Ohio as the population continues to grow.
“We’ve known they were here for 10 years at least, but the sightings were super rare,” Ms. Lewis said. “We had a joke that if you worked here you never got a chance to see them.”
Some people come out to the refuge specifically looking for otters but still haven’t seen them, she said.
Oak Harbor resident Ken McFarlan has been one of the lucky visitors, having caught glimpses of river otters at the Ottawa refuge and, more recently, the Ohio DNR’s nearby Magee Marsh. Both are along State Rt. 2 in Ottawa County.
Mr. McFarlan told The Blade he’s seen river otters three or four times in that area over the past five years, including Magee Marsh last summer when a couple of river otters appeared almost to be toying with him by the way they popped their heads above water and looked at him. He figures they knew they were in no danger and had a quick escape route if something happened.
“I actually got out of my car to get a picture of a bald eagle,” Mr. McFarlan said. “One [of the river otters] stuck its head up. They were within a couple of feet of the bank. They kept popping up and popping down. I could have sat there and taken pictures for a long time. It was the first time I’d seen them up that close.”
He said he believes river otters might be getting more used to seeing people there. He also said he expects more sightings as water quality and fish populations continue to rebound, in part from the new and expanded wetland projects Ohio has going to help combat western Lake Erie algal blooms.
“They’re fun to watch,” he said of the otters.
Jeff Vogelpohl, of Elmore, Ohio, is another area resident who’s had luck finding river otters. He said he’s been seeing them more frequently during weekend hikes he takes with his dog at the Ottawa refuge after logging his first sighting in July, 2018.
“This past year, it seems like I’ve seen them about once a month,” Mr. Vogelpohl said.
His latest otter encounter was Jan. 14. He thought he saw a muskrat, but it turned out to be a family of six river otters. One poked its head through a thin film of ice that remained on the water and stared at him.
“They’re pretty inquisitive,” Mr. Vogelpohl said. “They seem to know when I’m there.”
Miss Wallace, a substitute teacher at Anthony Wayne Junior High School in Whitehouse, said she and her fiance were out bird watching at Providence Metropark when they saw the otters in the Maumee just before sundown on Jan. 4.
“Our intent was to find birds,” said Miss Wallace, who also is a seasonal Metroparks Toledo employee who teaches fishing, hiking, and canoeing as part of her duties as an outdoor skills programmer. “We actually were looking for owls.”
She said the response to her video “has been insane.”
“I tried keeping up with all of the comments, but it’s hard now because there are so many,” Miss Wallace said. “It was amazing. It was great to see the response so positive.”
First Published January 22, 2023, 3:30 p.m.
