A Cool Wildlife Encounter With River Otters
November 29, 2009
Pair of River Otters along the bank of Little River Great Smoky Mountain National Park Tn
River Otters were pretty common in the rivers in Tennessee and North Carolina back in the 1700’s. By the 1930’s trapping had about eliminated the river otter and in 1934 when the Smoky Mountain National Park was created the river otter was basically absent from the land.
In 1986 the National Park Service began to reintroduce the river otter to Great Smoky Mountain National Park with otters from North Carolina.
The National Park Service began a reintroduction program in 1986. Between February 26 and March 31, 11 river otters were obtained from North Carolina and released on Abrams Creek ( Griess, 1987). Beginning in December, 1988, 14 additional otters from South Carolina and Louisiana were released in Little River (Miller, 1992). Six otters were released in 1992 in Cataloochee Creek, four in Hazel Creek, and two in the Little River (DeLozier, pers. comm., December 1993). Most of the reintroduced otters established home ranges within the park, although one is known to have established a home range in the French Broad River outside the Park (Linzey, 1995a ). Three of the otters released in the Little River crossed the mountains and established their home ranges on the North Carolina side of the Park. During January, 1994, the National Park Sevice released 100 additional river otters from Louisiana into the following park streams: West Prong and Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River, Big Creek, Cataloochee Creek, Abrams Creek, Little River, Twentymile Creek, Tab Cat Creek, Oconaluftee River, Deep Creek, Eagle Creek, Forney Creek, Pilkey Creek, Chambers Creek, and Noland Creek. These releases concluded the otter reintroduction program.
River otters are making a comeback across their previous range with assistance of wildlife agencies ( Tennessee North Carolina and sportsmen who fund them. While I’ve seen signs of otters in areas I’ve visited until this morning I’ve never encountered any. While my encounter was only brief I ran into this pair along the banks of the Little River inside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park on the Tennessee side. Hopefully this specie will make a complete come back and sightings will become as common as deer.
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That sure is an awesome picture, one of your best wildlife shots I would say.