I recall a home video that was shown on the local news in Seattle in the
1980s, of a mallard on Lake Union suddenly being attacked from below and
vanishing from sight; the blurry image was thought to be that of a river
otter, although I heard some speculation that it was a sea lion. I
thought it was a river otter...

Check out our lakes web page!
http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/lakes/index.htm

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 W. Ewing St.
Seattle, WA 98119-1507

Mail Stop: LAB

(206) 684-2344
(206) 684-2395 fax
kevin.li at metrokc.gov





>----------
>From: Deb Beutler[SMTP:dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu]
>Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 6:51 PM
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: Do River Otters Eat Birds?
>
> 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
>
>