SPRING 2004 No. 19

Page 3

Annual Results

This year there’s quite a few more ‘dots’ on the map than last year (ref. DOG Newsletter No. 17 for 2002/03 Results). This has a lot to do with more sites being surveyed, last year 910 sites were surveyed, this year 1037. However, there has also been a small increase in the amount of positives recorded. Last year 22.7% of sites recorded were positive. This year its 28.4%.

There has been an increase in positive records of around 10% this year for the Upper Stour, the River Frome and the River Wey. Yet the largest increase in positive results has been on the West Dorset Rivers which has had a 15.2% increase in positive results. However, both the River Piddle and the River Yeo has had an around 10% decrease in positive results.

There are still no records for the Fleet and few for Poole Harbour but these spots are difficult to survey. Yet the River Corfe which should be relatively easy to survey still persists to be Otter-record free!

Results grow in importance the longer we collect them as it can illustrate with better accuracy the population trend of otters in Dorset the longer we continue with the records – the larger the sample size for results the better we can ‘iron-out’ inaccuracies, seasonal fluctuations or events such as flooding or changes in surveyors which causes ‘skews’ in the data. So please keep at it whether you get regular sprainting spots or none!

Winter Results