Bob Arnebeck's Web Page on Otters

If you have a fast internet connection, double click on the Google Video link below the photo and meet an otter

Since 1997 I have been hiking with a camcorder on an island in the St. Lawrence River just east of Lake Ontario. The otters I see have shown me how they raise their young and how they thrive in the river and its islands' swamps. I generally watch one family, a mother, her pups, and often a female helper, beginning in June and with luck through the winter. Sometimes two families will join together, like the six otters below.

I see single males and groups of males occasionally.

Despite their popularity, otters are poorly understood. However, their numbers are increasing and more people are seeing them. I invite you to join me in learning more about them. A first step is learning how to identify otters. In this and my other web pages, I can help you tell the difference between otters and the other mammals that are often mistakenly identified as otters: beavers, muskrats, minks and fishers. At the bottom of this page I will provide links to my web pages on beavers, muskrats and minks where you can find more information and video clips of those animals. I don't have a web page on fishers. But below the photos I have a nice video clip of a fisher. See how how it differs from its fellow mustelid, the otter.

beaver

muskrat

mink

fisher

At the moment I am trying to write web presentations on my observations of otter pup rearing, and so far I have on a series of short video clips that I call the "Otter Video Book" that show the range of otter behavior. All the clips are on Google Video. Here is one of my favorites, a 50 second video clip of otter pups playing:

Over the years I have shared my observations in the following three links