Subject: Re: Do River Otters Eat Birds?
Date: Feb 24 23:53:42 1998
From: Wilson E Cady - gorgebirds at juno.com


A family of RIVER OTTERS attacked and killed several domestic
ducks in a pen along a small stream at a neighbors farm. Unfortunately
the neighbor was a good shot and killed the female and two out of three
youngsters before they made it back to the stream.
Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA.
gorgebirds at juno.com "Never Pet A Burning Dog"
360-835-5947 gorgebirds at juno.com


On Tue, 24 Feb 1998 18:51:36 -0800 (PST) Deb Beutler
<dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu> writes:
> On Friday, Feb. 20, 1998, James and I had to go to Lewiston,
>Nez
>Perce Co., Idaho, on an errand. As always, we stopped at the West
>Pond
>(a.k.a. Railroad Bridge Levy Pond) along US 12 in Lewiston. As we
>approached
>the pond, I was shocked: there were no waterfowl on the pond. The
>levy pond
>usually hosts hundreds of waterfowl all winter long (well into April)
>and a
>large group of "regulars", primarily Mallards, Wood Ducks, American
>Wigeon,
>Canada Geese, and various domestic geese and duck hybrids. We walked
>down
>to the pond and we could clearly tell something was wrong. The birds
>didn't
>swarm to us, begging for bread. Instead, they ignored us and were
>staring
>at the pond. There were no waterfowl on the pond. The bread that
>other
>people had been feeding was floating on the surface of the pond and
>was
>littering the area. Many of the birds were clearly nervous and were
>flying
>all around the pond. These birds were clearly nervous about
>something.
>James and I wondered if someone had been down there harassing them
>(throwing
>rocks at them, shooting at them, etc.). Then the answer appeared. We
>were
>following a trail of bubbles in the water, expecting a muskrat or
>beaver,
>with our binoculars. The head that appeared, however, clearly
>belonged to a
>river otter. This is only the second time I have seen a river otter
>(the
>first was three along the Payette River, Boise Co., Idaho, at
>Christmas this
>year). There it was right in the middle of town. The pond is just
>over the
>levy from the Clearwater River. We watched it for several minutes; it
>clearly wasn't afraid of us; several times it surfaced just below us
>and
>looked right at us. However, the ducks were very afraid of it.
>Whenever it
>surfaced, they began to call loudly. Even when a family came to feed
>the
>ducks, they refused to take their eyes off the water and completely
>ignored
>the handouts (very aberrant behavior).
>
> Has anyone else seen river otters bother birds? Do they eat
>ducks?
>
>
>Cheers
>Deb Beutler
>
>Deb Beutler
>Department of Zoology
>P.O. Box 644236
>Washington State Univerisity
>Pullman, Whitman Co., WA
>dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu
>
>

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