If you see a furry head with whiskers pop up in a local creek or wetland, it may be an otter. Or it may be a beaver.River otters were re-introduced to Western New York in the late 1990s after they disappeared due to over-trapping and environmental pollution.
Now, research by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has found signs that otter populations are stable in Niagara County again.
However, river otters generally aren’t living in rivers.“Lake Erie and the Niagara River are not where I’d go looking for them,” said Jen Pettit, wildlife biologist for DEC Region 9.
“They want smaller creeks or swamps. They’re in habitat that beavers are creating — the impoundments that they’re creating with their dams — and the ponded environment.”
Otters showed their love for beavers right out of the gate when released. Pettit said starting in 1995, 279 otters were humanely trapped in the Adirondacks and Catskills, had their health evaluated at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, and were released at 16 sites in Western and Central New York.
There were no release sites in Erie and Niagara counties. Pettit said biologists selected the healthiest ecosystems in the region for reintroduction, with the expectation that the otters would reproduce and disperse out from initial sites.
That’s exactly what the canny creatures did, almost immediately.
Of 14 otters released with radio transmitters at Lee’s Landing along the Genesee River in Letchworth State Park, many had left the park’s boundaries within 20 days, according to a progress report by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
The study evaluated otter movement, home range development, habitat use, and food habits for the 14 animals.
“By the end of Sept ‘98, only a single otter was regularly occupying the river,” the report said nearly 25 years ago. An evaluation of otter resting sites found that 53% of the time, otters rested at beaver lodges and 29% of the time at beaver bank dams. They occasionally hung out with muskrats.
Until 2017, DEC conducted winter otter surveys by entering creeks at a bridge and walking down stream banks looking for scat, snow slides and tracks.
“It’s easier to find signs than to see the actual otters themselves,” Pettit said of the mostly nocturnal animals.
The survey found evidence of stable populations at Four Mile Creek near Youngstown, at Eighteenmile Creek near Olcott, at Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge outside Royalton, and in Tonawanda Creek, Pettit said.
“I would imagine they are in Wilson,” she said. “If there’s an area with good water quality — and they do select for locations where beavers are present — then you’re very likely to see them or sign of them. A lot of people in the area don’t even realize we have them here.”
“They have expanded their range since reintroduction and thrive in large wetland areas like the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge,” said Paul Hess, refuge biologist. “Large wetlands are full of food for otter. During dry seasons, otter will move from their inland wetland habitats to more permanent bodies of water, in order to adapt to drought conditions and for ease in finding food.”
Hess said fish are the otter’s No. 1 food source. “Crayfish and amphibians are other top foods they look for. We find otter toilets on the refuge and adjoining state lands that contain mostly fish scales and crayfish shells.” The animals tend to release their waste in the same places repeatedly.
The success of otters in Niagara County is a sign that their environments are healthy, Pettit said.
“They’re at the top of their food chain, so they have the greatest level of exposure if there are contaminants,” she said. “If our water quality is poor, we’re really going to see it affect them. In some ways, they are an indicator that we have good water quality.”
To protect the animal’s success, New York State prohibits trapping of otters outside the Adirondacks. Pettit said if trappers are seeing fresh otter signs, they should avoid using the location, or avoid sets in otter travel corridors where they are entering the water. To prevent otters from being caught in traps for beavers, a state regulation requires traps with offset triggers.
People can report sightings of otters and other native mammals to the DEC at dec.ny.gov/nature/animals-fish-plants/biodiversity-species-conservation/citizen-science/furbearer-sighting-surveys.
“That is a helpful thing for us, as biologists, to be able to learn where people are seeing them,” she said. “They can even include pictures. For people that are interested in wildlife photography, it’s a species at the top of their list.”
“I think that it’s important for us to be able to bring the species back that we had naturally before European settlement,” Pettit said. “Before 1995 you didn’t even have a chance to see an otter here. Now you have a very good chance. It’s a success story for New York state that we have the habitat and environmental quality to support them.”