Friday, May 5, at the river I spotted an animal I never seen before. It was on the opposite bank and a little upstream when I spotted it. After a short time sniffing around the bank it went into the river and swam across to my side. This was not easy as the river flow was 588 CFS. Amazingly the animal swam almost straight across. A few times it would dive under the water for a short time as it crossed.
Then it swan upstream along my river bank. I thought it was going away and I looked elsewhere and downstream. A few minutes later I spotted the animal as it surfaced on my side of the river downstream from where I stood. Whoa! That was fast! It continued floating with the current as it went around a bend and out of sight.
Now what animal was it? It was large enough to be a beaver but it didn't have a flat tail. And the body was long. It was much too large to be a muskrat. I suspected it was an otter, but... I only knew of sea otters.
I researched the internet and found that the animal was a river otter. What I saw matched this description exactly:
"it has an elongated body, short legs, webbed feet and a long stout tail. Out of the water it walks with an awkward humpbacked gait, sometimes belly-sliding down muddy or snow-covered hills. On the surface of the water it dog paddles, but underwater the otter swims with its entire body, pushing with its webbed feet and steering with its long tail."
"Otters even eat muskrats and beavers!" Wow. Even another reason I like these animals.
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| Photo by Bren Bowerman |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otter
http://www.wildernessclassroom.com/www/schoolhouse/boreal_library/animals/otter.htm
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