Winter 2002 No. 15

Page 6

The Otter Trap

Having worked closely with otters for twenty years, both handling and rehabilitating injured and orphaned otters as well as photographing and watching them in their natural environment, these animals are for me the epitome of wildness.

There is no better place to see these charming animals in the wild during daylight hours then in the magical Shetland Islands with their rugged coastline, clean air and warm friendly people. Shetland has a population of over 800 otters and is indeed considered to be one of the easiest places to see otters in the wild during the day, a fact rightly exploited by the tourism industry as they are seen as a great asset in terms of eco tourism.

Whilst working there on a project photographing otters and other wildlife last May I made a very disturbing find. I was in a remote part of North Mainland on a rocky outcrop where I had been told of the existence of an Otter House; this is a trap made of boulders surrounding a box set on a regularly used otter path. It was used many years ago to catch otters for their pelts when it was a legal act.

After a lot of walking and searching I found the house. It had been sealed up and obviously had not used for some time. As I carried on around the coastline, about fifty metres from the otter house, only a hundred metres from a salmon farm. I found a large wire cage – it was a trap designed to catch an animal live.

The trap was set on a pathway regularly used by otters and had a large stone placed towards the end of the cage with a spraint on it – clearly meant to encourage other otters to come in and investigate thus springing the trap shut. The unfortunate animal would then be killed or taken away and released elsewhere. Both of these acts are illegal.

The trap was reported to the police, their Wildlife Liaison officer investigated the incident, but he was unable to find enough evidence for a persecution. According to a spokesperson from the Scottish Natural Heritage, there are no records of any successful prosecution regarding otter persecution to date, although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of otters that have allegedly become a nuisance around fish farms having been trapped and taken away, their final fate being unknown.

Colin Seddon

Making Tracks

Hands up who knows what ‘damp leam’ is. If you do you are probably an angler as it is used as an ingredient in ground bait. Leam is a very fine clay and by adding it to ground bait ‘you can alter the consistency of the crumb, depending on whether your swim is shallow or deep’. As I am not an angler I have not the faintest idea what a ‘crumb’ or a ‘swim’ is but after speaking to Kevin O’Hara, Northumberland Otters and Rivers Project Officer, I now know that leam can also be used to help to ‘track down’ the elusive otter.

A couple of inches of leam in an old baking tray makes an ideal artificial substrate for otter tracks. Because the clay is so fine it does not solidify and it preserves imprints in such fine detail that Kevin has been able to identify the tracks of individual otters. Using a similar digital technology to that used in the forensic analysis of fingerprints he was able to identify eight different otters as they made their way along the banks of the River Tyne.

Until now the best otter tracks I have found were those left on fine greensand silt produced by local flooding but such ideal locations are not often available and by using this method it is possible to create tracks in places where they would not normally show up. In a similar way you can use a few old bricks to create an artificial spraint site.

A two kilo bag of leam costs £2.75 although you may have to look around as not all angling shops stock it. You can always use fine sand as an alternative substrate but the results will not be as good. I will certainly be experimenting with this technique during the next few months.

Peter Irvine