I hate river otters. Well, sort of. I used to
love them. Then I volunteered to do the
story on the species in the October issue of
NEBRASKAland Magazine. And now I hate
them. Kind of.
It was, I thought, a plumb assignment. A
radio telemetry study to look at river otter
range and movement in the central Platte
River Valley was about to begin. I'd always
loved watching otters in the zoo. I'd captured
a few average photos of one from a photo
blind on Clear Creek. The study meant I'd
know where an otter was, which would
guarantee some great photos. Right? Wrong.
Had I done any research, I would have
known odds were stacked against photo
ops. For otters spend their days sleeping
in underground dens. When they do emerge
at night, they swim underwater. Research
technician Kent Fricke was tracking otters
and put me in at the front door of a den with
an otter in it countless times (I could count
them, but am afraid to). As the mornings and
nights in a photo blind at various sandpits
and sloughs in Hall County added up, I
Other Than
Otters
A love-hate relationship.
Kind of.
Photos and story by Eric Fowler
16 NEBRASKAland • DECEMBER 2014
ABOVE: A wood duck and her
duckling swim through a slough
that parallels the Platte River in Hall
County.
BELOW: The sun sets over a
partially frozen sandpit along the
Platte River in Hall County.
