foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Or jackanory .
Otter spread
- Thread starter foxdropper
- Start date
shakey jake
Well-Known Member
if they kill cats even more reason to like them! no one would any sympathy for a chicken farmer that didnt protect his hens, why should we have any sympathy for unprotected ponds.?
Beautiful creatures- sadly these and cormorants are our native fish stocks worse enemy , not to mention some of our European friends who are partial to pike and carp! any who I digress… I’ve seen them around Essex , saw one swimming along a flooded ditch in north Essex over 15 years ago which lead to my mates farm pond which had a healthy stock of ‘wild’ carp and decent perch-not any more!
Anyone complaining about an otter taking ornamental fish should be banned from keeping fish.
foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Tbh Snakey …
The cat killing story sounds wonderful but I don’t believe it at all I’m afraid but there tis .
I appreciate the impact that otters can have on fisheries, but then you have to consider how relatively recently we’ve started artificially stocking rivers and ponds with an abundance of fish for the sole benefit of anglers.
Personally I’d rather tackle the trawlers, the salmon farming, the seals, and then the otter in that order, so we can maximise the chance of migratory fish reaching the rivers in the first place. By the time we stopped fishing for salmon in Sutherland there was barely a fish caught that didn’t show some kind of seal damage. We had otters in the river too, but the amount they took was negligible by comparison.
Personally I’d rather tackle the trawlers, the salmon farming, the seals, and then the otter in that order, so we can maximise the chance of migratory fish reaching the rivers in the first place. By the time we stopped fishing for salmon in Sutherland there was barely a fish caught that didn’t show some kind of seal damage. We had otters in the river too, but the amount they took was negligible by comparison.
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foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Maybe introduce wolves to control otters et al .
Bowderdale
Well-Known Member
We certainly have more otters than mink around us, see them regular on the duck ponds 
foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Yep ,havnt seen sight of a mink for couple of years here .
Otters kill them, that will be why!
That is one of the most sensible pieces of reasoning I have heard in a long long time. Well said Willie. The most undesirable part of the Otter problem is the sheer amount of fencing going up round lakes & I have heard of plans to do the same with bird reserves. Those beautiful parts of the world are starting to look like a concentration camp, such a shame. Seal populations have now reached ludicrous proportions here in Norfolk, 26000 of them, there is a whole new tourist industry just to go & watch seals. Historically seal population was controlled by Distemper virus, now there are seal rescue hospitals complete with swimming pools, sardines & vaccines, its very hard to argue with folk that come from the large cities with their kids & get to see a seal or an otter for the first time, that might be something they remember for the rest of their lives, same thing with me if I am ever lucky enough to catch a sea trout over 5 lbs, trouble is I'm running out of time.
foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
They certainly are interesting to watch, just the same as I enjoy watching any wildlife. But they are an apex predator in this country and have devastated all the unfenced fisheries in Norfolk, not just the fish but also the birdlife as well. They are relentless hunters, I watched a bitch come off a large island on an SSSI after a brood of Mallard, the old girl did her job and flapped across 200 yards of open water with the Otter in pursuit, whilst her brood to shelter in the Norfolk reeds, she took off and flew straight back to her brood and called them up, it then started all over again with the dog otter this time. That autumn there wasn't a single duck on the whole of the mere, and it used to be a very prolific duck shoot for the estate. All the village fish ponds have been raided as well, I could tell many funny stories about this but had better not 
foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Granted mate but it would take a very determined otter to follow a mink and I’m not sure they are the predator killers some would make them out to be .That is to say they undoubtedly are aggressive in pursuit of food but actively killing other predators ,I’m not sure on that .
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
Maybe I used one word too many ( Apex). But I have seen them many times hunting birdlife such as ducks, geese, reared pheasants & partridges especially as they are a bit slow on the uptake, all the ditches, and streams around my stamping ground were full of eels when I was a bit younger, all gone, as are the swan muscles on the estate lakes I have fished, they take the easiest and most nutritious food sources first, the rivers in Norfolk are all on the small side and have taken a real hammering, the larger/wider rivers in other parts of the country don't seem to have suffered as much.
A quick Google seems to suggest otherwise:
"It used to be thought that mink displaced otters and were part of the reason for the otters’ decline. However, this is now thought not to be true, and although there is evidence that sometimes otters will actually kill mink, mink and otters co-exist throughout Norfolk."
American mink | Norfolk Wildlife Trust
Escaped or intentionally freed from fur farms in the 1960s, the American mink is now well established in the UK. Its carnivorous nature is a threat to our native water vole and seabird populations.
www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk
There's also a BBC Wildlife article that speaks to otters killing mink, but I can't access the full article through the firewall.
“There is evidence that otters kill and eat mink and that they destroy the sites used by mink to mark their territories. Ironically, mink were once thought to have contributed to the otter population crash in the 1950s but scientists believe that mink were only able to colonise Britain so quickly because of the low numbers of otters – the results of widespread use of organochlorine pesticides in agriculture at that time.”
Yeh where's Ripley and Arne when you need them LOL
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