While fishing the first big hole below the Pumphouse hole on the Buskin last night a guy on the other side hooked a red. An otter came out of nowhere (it seemed) and grabbed the salmon. He swam it under a downed poplar just downstream from me by 30 feet or so. A few minutes later he came out with the fish crosswise in his mouth, biting it near the dorsal fin.

He swam underwater, upstream, and around the first corner. Maybe 25 yards of swimming against some heavy current. He again disappeared into a pile of logs.

It was pretty cool to see.

That is cool!

I recall there are no river otters there....only sea otters and land otters... Miss the Buskin!

Huh,never heard of a land otter... they have always been river otters!

Question: When a “land” otter is swimming in the ocean, is it a sea otter?

Question: Why does one see ‘land’ otter tracks, but rarely an actual ‘land’ otter, while one often sees ‘river’ otters, but rarely their tracks? (Are they related to Bigfoot?)



Cool anecdotes though, about a really cool critter. Seems that they generally live in their own little bubble regardless of what the local humans do to interlope.

Humph! How could you forget about the Lesser Northern Snow Otter?

Sheesh!

(Sightings of these rascals is very rare.)

At that latitude, I completely agree...

Must be related to the kustakaw...

I don’t imagine these critters travel so much during the ice-free times, but the snow sure records plenty of evidence of their travels in winter over some rather extended distances, and not just on waterways. Miles and miles of open tundra can be tracked - mostly with their ‘skid marks’ - as they travel from one place to another, occasionally dropping into a beaver pond or creek along their path. It’s not too surprising that the term “land-otter” is sometimes applied to them, if incorrectly, as that is where many of them are collected as a sort of ‘by-catch’ by travelers/hunters.