Above: Otter tracks in the snow. Photo by Patti Smith/Brattleboro Reformer
First of all, thank you for reading the local news. Strong communities are so important now, and local media is an important part of the community. Here is some news from the local world of ice, snow, and water: otters are out there.
I love otters, naturally, but my pal Melanie is crazy about them. We have questions. How far do our local otters travel in winter? Do they have a regular route? Because otters are so wed to water, it should be possible to follow their movements by checking for tracks at intersections of rivers and roads.
In the middle of January, I found the tracks of two otters that had followed the brook in my woods two days earlier. The game was afoot! Melanie and I had a holiday weekend ahead to follow them. The next morning, I found two places where the otters had crossed under roads. I had pinned their heading by the time Melanie was able to join me.
There is no mistaking an otter trail for anything else. They are irrepressible belly-sliders. Unless they are going up a steep slope, they will toboggan every few strides. They can, however, travel under the ice when they want to. Frozen rivers are filled with ice caverns above the water. Otter tracks can disappear for a quarter of a mile or more. Typically, however, they alternate brief travels below the ice with belly slides on top.