Nebraskaland

66 Nebraskaland • June 2021 MIXED BAG Just 35 years ago, there were no North American river otters in Nebraska. That there could be a trapping season this fall for the species is testament to the success of a reintroduction effort and the conservation efforts that followed, a rarity in the realm of threatened and endangered species. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's Board of Commissioners will consider approval of a pilot trapping season at its meeting June 11 in Chadron. As proposed, the season would open Nov. 1 to anyone with a Nebraska Fur Harvest permit. Trappers would be required to report their catches by phone or online, and the season would close three days after a trigger of 75 otters has been reached or Feb. 1. This allows trappers the two days time they are allowed by regulation to check their underwater traps. Sam Wilson, furbearer program manager with the Commission, said he expects the final harvest total to be between 75 and 150 otters, a level that will allow the population to continue to grow. Monitoring will continue, and the prospects of more seasons revisited next year. The proposed season comes one year after the river otter was removed from the state's list of threatened species. That move came following several studies of the distribution and population density of the species. Following decades of unregulated trapping, river otters were extirpated from Nebraska in the early 1900s, and gone or rare in 13 other states in the Midwest by the middle of the 20 th century. Nebraska was one of 21 states, including 10 in the Midwest, to reintroduce otters. Between 1986 and 1991, biologists released 159 otters, most acquired from Louisiana or Alaska, at seven sites on the Calamus, Cedar, Elkhorn, Niobrara, Platte, North Platte and South Loup rivers. Research and monitoring has found otters have expanded their range within those river basins and beyond, with otters likely from Iowa, Missouri and Kansas moving into the Missouri, Nemaha, Blue and Republican rivers. Wilson said there are now likely more than 2,200 otters in the state. As the number of otters has increased, so to have complaints from owners of ponds, fish farms and fish hatcheries: Otters are superb hunters and can affect fish populations in these locations. A season will provide a legal means of controlling the species. Another reason for the proposed season is that trappers catch some otters while targeting beavers, a species that can cause issues for landowners and must be controlled. Since reintroduction efforts began, they have caught 15 to 30 annually, and are required to deliver those otters to a Game and Parks office or Conservation officer. Trappers have been a valuable partner in river otter monitoring and recovery. They have become adept at avoiding setting traps in locations where they might catch an otter, and through annual surveys provided information that helped biologists track the expansion of the population. "This pilot season will allow otters to be managed more similarly to other furbearers, where there is less burden on trappers and provide more options for people who may have damage," Wilson said. "It also provides an opportunity for people who want to pursue otters." Many Midwestern states, including those bordering Nebraska, have already established otter seasons. Missouri was the first to do so in 1996, and now harvests between 1,000 and 4,000 animals a year during a 112-day season. Iowa opened a season in 2006, Kansas in 2011 and South Dakota in 2020. The river otter's recovery is seen as one of the best examples of the successful recovery of a threatened or endangered species. "Here you have a species that was native and widespread, but then entirely extirpated, as far as we know, and then brought back and they have flourished not only in Nebraska, but also across the other Midwestern states," Wilson said. OTTER SEASON PROPOSED By Eric Fowler A family of river otters stands on the edge of a slough along the Platte River in Hall County. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND

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