UTTERLY AWESOME OTTERS!

by Jacqui Birchall
The Stanley Park river otters are the new stars of Lost Lagoon.

They appear to be quite indifferent to human observation as they rip through huge carp shoreside. Otters bring their large catches to land to enable consumption, thus giving a wonderful show to passing walkers.

The otters in Stanley Park are river otters, not sea otters. Sea otters are the very cute otters recorded lying on their backs using their bellies as dining tables, as cribs for their young and for using rocks to break shellfish. Sea otters are larger, have a flatter and wider tail and a longer coat than river otters.

River otters are not confined to rivers but are found in lakes, wetlands, estuaries and marine coasts. They are related to wolverines, weasels, badgers, ferrets and martins and are found in all provinces except PEI.

The average male grows to about 11.3 kgs and the females to 8.3 kgs. They grow to about 76 to 152 centimetres in length and one-third of their body length is composed of their tails. Otters from further north are bigger.

A group of otters is called a raft. They become sexually active at two years and live for around eight years. Breeding season is December to April and births usually occur in the spring several months after mating, due to delayed embryo implanting. A mother will have up to six pups that are born with hair, but blind and toothless. The reluctant babies are taught to swim at two months when the mother otters drop them in the water.

Otters are equally agile in the water and on land. They have dens on land and often take over the dens of other animals, even a beaver lodge. They use ice, snow and mud to speed their land journeys by sliding. They swim up to 13 kms an hour and can dive to 11 meters with ease. Otters can hold their breath for four to eight minutes and close their ears and eyes underwater, have a third eyelid to protect their eyes and use their whiskers to find food in dark or murky waters.

Otters are mostly crepuscular and nocturnal meaning they like twilight and the night, but the Lost Lagoon otters can be seen at almost any time of the day. The Stanley Park Ecology Society is unsure how many otter families live in Stanley Park as they don’t officially survey them but at least two have been observed. A group of three and a group of two can often be seen together on the lagoon. Otters groom each other and use moss to dry their coats.

SPES has observed otters in Beaver Lake, Lost Lagoon and along the seawall. They appear to use the drainage pipes to move from the seawall into the park.

They have a wide appetite. Depending on what is available they will eat crustaceans, fish, amphibians, birds, insects and mammals. One can observe the birds leaving the lagoon as the otters approach. If the wood ducks are up in a tree and a blue heron is screeching, look for the otters.

Latrines are the otters’ social centre, their hub, their Facebook page for finding who is in town, who is in heat, available females and who is ready to have babies. Having this information helps to avoid fights, to learn about their neighbours and allows females and their pups to live safely. One can observe the otters defecating on a little island on the west side of the lagoon. There is another latrine at Devonian Harbour.

Their latrines are pungent. Otters are very scent-based and their latrines are ugly. I can say this based on personal experience. I work at a False Creek marina where a small group of otters have a latrine. I described the latrine contents to Megan Manes of SPES and she kindly sent me an article on otter latrines by Smithsonian Magazine. Otters also expel anal jelly, a yellow like gooey mass filled with bones, shells, and undigested food. It is the shedding of the otters’ intestinal lining. Judging by the marina latrine, otters shed anal jelly frequently. Scientists think anal jelly protects the otters from sharp bones and shells that are passing through their bodies. Scientists can count the rings on the fish scales and fish ears from the anal jelly to tell the age and type of fish the otters eat.

Otters have few predators in the Lower Mainland but they include coyotes, dogs and birds of prey. The otters of Lost Lagoon become very wary when dogs appear.

You can hear the otters too. They whistle, chuckle, growl, chirp and scream. They have huge teeth so beware. Give them space, show them respect.

DO NOT FEED THE COYOTES!

Coyotes have been nipping at the heels of Stanley Park strollers and joggers and at several of these animals have been removed from the park.

The obvious reason for this newly aggressive behaviour is that folks have been feeding and engaging with the coyotes and as a result, they have come to identify humans as a food source and lost their fear of people. The Parks Board has now closed several trails to prevent further encounters of this sort.

There is only one way to stop this. Don’t feed the animals in Stanley Park! Do we need to repeat that?

We will have a fuller report on developments on this issue, and ways to discourage this behaviour, in our next issue. In the March issue of The West End Journal.

Editor’s Note: This column has been updated to reflect more accurate information about the otters in Lost Lagoon and Beaver Lake.