WHY I OTTER...

On a recent history walk hosted by our museum, I had the good fortune of seeing an aquatic mammal.  The group I was with declared their thoughts on who it might be.  Squeals of excitement included “muskrat!”, “beaver!”, and “otter!”.  All were quite reasonable.  My family and I had spotted muskrats and beavers in the creek that runs through our town.  The otter seemed the least probable as we hadn’t seen one.  We began our own dichotomous key conversation.  “Does it have a wide flat tail?  If so, then it is a beaver.”  “No?  Is the tail naked and rat-like or covered in fur?”  “If it is naked and rat-like, then it is a muskrat.”  “If it is covered in fur it is an otter.”  Sure enough, it was an otter.  We could smell the difference.

Otters are carnivores.  They munch on fish and invertebrates such as crayfish.  Their scat has a stout aroma that just might cause eye-watering if you find yourself at a latrine site.  They are well suited to water life.  They have oily fur and a layer of body fat to keep them warm, even when wet (like the beaver).  They also can close their ears and nose when then are underwater, and can stay there for 3-4 minutes at a time.  Apparently, their whiskers are used to feel around under water and find food.

Otters are found throughout the Ozarks but once upon a time they were nearly extirpated (your fun word of the day meaning “locally extinct”).  States began to restore them in the 1980’s and 1990s.  They have been wildly successful and even occur in our little creek, in our little town, in our little corner of the Ozarks.  Why I otter have known that it was an otter.  We have a lovely mural of one downtown.