Top Photo: River otter cruises by. Standing on the boardwalk that surrounds the shallow pond in Explore the Wild I could see one, no two, brown objects on the far side of the wetlands surfacing, shaking off then quickly diving back under the water’s surface. Could they be a couple of female or young male hooded mergansers that didn’t migrate to their breeding grounds, too young to breed and dropping in to the local ponds to see what’s available inRead more
Posts tagged: #scat
Otters in the Midst
Top Photo: Otter latrine. I’ve been documenting the occurrence of otters in our wetlands since before 2010 when I saw tracks of one of the mustelids on snow covered ice in the wetlands. On one occasion during that time period I saw a large golden shiner, about 10” (they can reach 12”) floating in the water next to the Main Wetlands Overlook. It had a u-shaped mark on the middle portion of its body, as if something had grasped theRead more
A Disturbance in the Wetlands
Top Photo: Ripples in the water. Near the end of the day, two museum visitors coming up from the wetlands in Explore the Wild stopped me to ask a question, “Are there otters in the wetlands?” Apparently, they’d seen something that “looked very much like an otter.” I thought perhaps they’d seen a mink. I’ve seen mink fairly often down in the wetlands. But when our guests mentioned there were two of them, a picture of frolicking otters flashed acrossRead more