Could anyone send me good head shots of European Otters please.
As part of a scientific study I am trying to find out if it is possible to I.D otters using whisker patterns and whether this can be used to give numbers and Otter density on lowland rivers
If you could let me know where and when the picture was taken so I can know if two different people send pictures of the same Otter. Captive animals are fine. Nothing too big please but nice 5-10 meg jpeg would be great.
Many thanks in advance.
Posted by Mike Smith on January 19, 2010 at 6:16 AM
From my experience of adult river otters they usually have scarring on their snouts from turning stones looking for bullheads and the like. This will be fairly charcteristic id feature?
see this from our lucky encounter from a dog otter on the NPN Welsh trip a few years ago (scarring above snout and below jaw)
And have a search on UK NPN for an image posted by Rene de Heer and his freshwater otter for a more extensive scarring pattern around the nose.
Coastal otters very rarely have nasal scarring they tend to hunt amongst the seaweed/bladderwrack for crabs and butterfish etc and don't turn stones with their snouts (neither will captive otters fed herrings!)
Not wanting to be negative to your idea, but the whisker length and usual folded back position makes it very difficult to id the specific spacing from a photo? another eg same otter
Posted by Mike Smith on January 19, 2010 at 7:19 AM
ah number not pattern - still a toughie depending on image angle
Discussion
2 repliesCould anyone send me good head shots of European Otters please.
As part of a scientific study I am trying to find out if it is possible to I.D otters using whisker patterns and whether this can be used to give numbers and Otter density on lowland rivers
If you could let me know where and when the picture was taken so I can know if two different people send pictures of the same Otter. Captive animals are fine. Nothing too big please but nice 5-10 meg jpeg would be great.
Many thanks in advance.
see this from our lucky encounter from a dog otter on the NPN Welsh trip a few years ago (scarring above snout and below jaw)
And have a search on UK NPN for an image posted by Rene de Heer and his freshwater otter for a more extensive scarring pattern around the nose.
Coastal otters very rarely have nasal scarring they tend to hunt amongst the seaweed/bladderwrack for crabs and butterfish etc and don't turn stones with their snouts (neither will captive otters fed herrings!)
Not wanting to be negative to your idea, but the whisker length and usual folded back position makes it very difficult to id the specific spacing from a photo? another eg same otter