Cornwall Otter Diary 2006/07
A monthly update of otter snippets throughout the year
by Kate Stokes, Cornwall’s ‘Otter Officer’.
January
Wednesday 11th
First road casualty of the year reported near Roche, St Austell. The
corpse was collected and taken to the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation
Centre for post mortem. This revealed that it was a young, adult male
in very good physical condition prior to the accident.
Sunday 15th
Our annual Cornwall Otter Group Jolly was held at the Advent
Centre near Camelford (we shared the barn with 3 ewes and 2 lambs).
Our guest speaker was Angela Pountney from Exeter University talking
about results from the exciting DNA project in the Camel Catchment.
Two Otter Spotters, Dave Groves and Alison Jewell also gave short
talks about their local otter surveys. 25 people went for a very
wet walk in the rain – we were soggy, but happy.
Sunday 22nd
An otter training day (talk and walk) was held for 11 members of Luxulyan
Friends of the Valley. We found lots of spraint throughout the valley.
February
Thursday 9th
Otter talk at the grand Headland Hotel in Newquay for the Cornelian
Society. The ladies were very interested in the fall and rise of the
otter.
Wednesday 15th
Otter talk at St Just for 17 members of the University of the Third
Age (U3A). We had a lively debate about mink as many of the members
have seen mink in the area.
March
Saturday 25th
Brian Stringer of the Parish Wildlife Project held a mammal training
day for 29 people at Lezant, near Launceston. It was a fabulous day
looking for mammal signs and assessing their habitat needs. We found
the first otter record for the site on a tiny stream through the woods.
Tuesday 28th
An otter corpse was collected from Penzance. It was a most unusual
case – it had accidentally drowned in a fish trap. The corpse
was taken to the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre for post
mortem. It was a sub adult male in good condition.
Friday 31st
Another otter road casualty was reported near Wainhouse Corner, North
Cornwall. Otter Spotter Francis Crocker located the corpse but it
was unfortunately too old (and very smelly) to post mortem. Despite
this it is an invaluable record and has been logged.
April
Tuesday 4th
Otter talk for 30 people at Crackington Haven for their Parish AGM.
They asked a lot of good questions!
May
Wednesday 24th
There was another road casualty on the A30 over Goss Moor. The Wildlife
Veterinary Investigation Centre carried out a post mortem and very
sadly reported that it was a pregnant young female due to give birth
within two weeks to a single cub.
June
Sunday 18th
A mammal day was held at Colliford Lake for 30 members of Cornwall
Mammal Group for their AGM. The guest speaker was Derek Gow, who spoke
about the issues of re-introductions of wild boar, red squirrels, beaver
and water voles. We looked at the impact of otters and American mink
on water voles.
July
Wednesday 5th
At a mammal walk at Trevarno Gardens, near Helston, we found otter
spraint along the edge of the ponds. This was found by the private
lake (we had permission to go off the public access) and along the
main footpath, to the delight of visitors and staff.
Thursday 20th
At the request of Cornwall County Council, Cornwall Wildlife Trust
held a bridges training day for their structure and design team.
Otters were obviously a strong focus. 21 attendees participated in
morning lectures and were then inspired to find otter spraint during
the field visits in the afternoon.
August
Thursday 17th
A second otter corpse was picked up at Wainhouse Corner, North Cornwall.
It was a male in very good physical condition prior to the accident.
This unusual site appears to be a black spot area.
Saturday 19th
An otter stand was present at the Siblyback Family Fishing Day run
by the Environment Agency. The aim of this event is to encourage
new fisherman and is an ideal opportunity to raise awareness about
otters and the potential problems at fisheries.
Also on this day, Caharrick Parish had an open day. Cornwall
Wildlife Trust helped them create a parish pond several years ago and
provided an unmanned otter display.
Sunday 20th
There was a mammal walk at the Budock Vean Hotel, near Falmouth. Otters
use the series of pools and the sea at the edge of the grounds. We
also talked about the secret otter holt we built last year. The Hotel
provided a magnificent cream tea for 18 of us afterwards, while we
held a mammal quiz.
Saturday 26th
Another stand and well-attended Family Fishing Day organised by the
Environment Agency, at Stithians Reservoir. It’s a wonderful
opportunity to meet rum old fishermen like Jon Evans, who was teaching
the youngsters, and is also a stalwart part of Cornwall Otter Group.
Monday 28th
A dead otter was reported just over the Cornwall border near Halwill
Junction in Devon. Cornwall Otter Group members Dave and Mary Groves helped collect
the corpse and get it to the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre. Otters have large territories
and it is quite possible that this otter uses both counties.
Wednesday 30th
A Fox Club event was attended by 20 children and 20 adults. Budding
new mammal detectives (young and old) enjoyed an excellent morning
at the wonderful Nansmellyn Nature Reserve near Perranporth.
September
Thursday 28th
Following on from the Cornwall County Council training day (see July
20th), Cornwall County Council and Natural England sought advice about
otter mitigation at the road improvement scheme near Devoran.
October
Friday 20th
The Camel otter DNA gang met at the Environment Agency offices in Bodmin.
Angela Pountney from Exeter University provided an update for around
20 of us as we munched coffee cake. Feedback from the first year
was encouraging and she inspired us to carry on with our early morning
spraint collections in the Camel catchment, to continue the study for
a second year.
Sunday 22nd
Not a good day as two otter casualties were reported! One corpse was
near Truro and the other near Wadebridge. Unfortunately the first
corpse meant missing (we don’t know who moved it) and that
means we could not take it for post mortem at the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre. An
otter death is a loss, but on the positive side post mortem work
can provide invaluable information. We were very disappointed to ‘lose’ this
corpse. The otter near Wadebridge was successfully collected thanks
to Helen Morley. It was an adult female in good physical condition
prior to the accident.
Wednesday 25th
Despite the torrential rain it was Bake Lakes Childrens’ Fishery
Day near Liskeard, organised by the Environment Agency. Twenty children
were given fishing lessons by Bob Tetley and his team and then we talked
about the king of fishing – and looked at the ecology of the
otter, how to identify its field signs and considered the threats it
faces today.
Friday 27th
An otter road casualty was reported by Paul Semmens near Penzance.
Unfortunately the corpse could not be taken for post mortem, but
Paul thought it looked like a big dog otter and an official record
was made.
November
Thursday 2nd
There was a live interview with Radio Cornwall about mammals using
hedgerows and road verges and the opportunities and threats roads present
for mammals and other wildlife. Several papers also picked up this
story. The full impact of mammal deaths on roads is not really known,
but due to the excellent network of people reporting otter casualties
we collect around 50 otter casualties every year in Cornwall and Devon.
Saturday 4th
Cornwall Mammal Group was one of the guest speakers at the Cornwall
Wildlife Trust AGM, which had around 100 attendees. Cornwall Mammal
Group talked about the status of mammals in Cornwall and looked at
some of the key threats to them, including roads – the impact of roads on otters was
of course mentioned. Vic Simpson founder of the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre also
gave an excellent talk about his work. His pioneering research has
made many new discoveries, but he was quick to point out that without
members of the public reporting these corpses, or the network of
people delivering them to him, he wouldn’t be able to make
these amazing discoveries about the health of our wildlife.
Monday 6th
Barney Hill from the Parish Wildlife Project reported a dead otter
near Pipers Pool. Brian Stringer collected this and delivered it
to the Environment Agency offices in Bodmin and then I took it to
the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre. Good team work! It was an adult male in very good
physical condition prior to death.
Wednesday 8th
A member of the public, on his way to work, reported a dead otter near
Hayle. This was collected and the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre post mortem report
stated it was a sub adult male with bite wounds from another otter.
Thursday 9th
At the request of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation
(BASC), I attended the Cornwall Wildfowl Association’s AGM
in St Austell. 34 people were present and a number of them had seen
otters before. It was requested that if they did see otters or mink,
please could they report them for monitoring purposes. A number of
records have already come in.
Thursday 16th
A lady rang in the morning to say that there was a dead otter on the
A39 near Otterham Station. Dave and Mary Groves again came to the
rescue and collected the animal at dusk and stored it overnight.
This was delivered the following day to the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre in the hope
that they would be able to carry out a post mortem, even though it
was quite badly injured. Unfortunately the otter was very squashed
and all that could be determined from an examination was that it
was a male otter.
Friday 24th November
Two members of the public saw and independently reported a dead otter
near Sweetshouse. This was collected and delivered by Jess Thomasson
and Martin Rule from the Environment Agency. The Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre post
mortem revealed it was a sub adult male in good condition prior to
death.
Saturday 25th
Three mink corpses were collected from a tributary of the River Tamar.
These are the first mink corpses we’ve received in years and
will hopefully undergo post mortems at the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre. One of the
mink was dark brown/black, but two of them were a silvery colour
which is quite unusual.
Monday 27th
The bi-annual South West Riparian Mammals Forum meeting was held in
Devon and hosted by the Environment Agency. Specialists from Cornwall
to Wiltshire discussed issues about semi-aquatic mammals, particularly
concerns over the bile fluke – a new disease that the Wildlife
VIC discovered in otters for the first time in Britain in 2005. The
afternoon was an open forum, with some 60 people, devoted to discussing
the status of water voles in the region and the impact of mink. Dr
Tom Moorhouse from Oxford University, who co-wrote the new Water
Vole Handbook for Conservation, was present to provide expert advice.
December
Sunday 3rd
Mary Groves spotted a dead otter as Dave was driving her to an event.
They collected it, stored it somewhere cool and took it to the Environment
Agency offices the following morning. Martin Rule then delivered the
corpse to the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre, who informed us it had been a sub adult
male, in good condition.
Tuesday 5th
Cornwall Mammal Group held an excellent fun, but informative mammal
quiz at The Plume of Feathers in Mitchell, who provided a fantastic
buffet supper. Nearly 40 people participated with representatives
from the various mammal groups including Bat, Dolphin, Otter and
Seal Groups, mammal detectives from Seaquest South West and members
of the public.
Tuesday 12th
I did a live radio interview with Radio Cornwall about Goss Moor and
the impact of the new A30 road scheme on otters.
Monday 18th
Despite the recent rain, Jon Evans and I held a training session for
new recruits to the Camel Catchment DNA survey.
Tuesday 19th
Felicity Cross from the RSPCA reported a dead otter near St Agnes.
Vic Simpson collected and carried out a post mortem on this female
otter.
Sunday 24th
What a fantastic way to end the yearly diary. Tyson Jackson watched
and filmed a mother and two cubs for over an hour fishing and playing
on the River Camel.
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