NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: https://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/377644
22 NEBRASKAland • OCTOBER 2014 allowed Wilson and his crew access to some of the best otter habitat in the region for the study, and foot-hold traps were set in areas rich with sign, including latrines and trails. The traps were modified to reduce injury to the otters, and no bait was used on the traps to reduce the chance of capturing raccoons or other common mammals. Wilson said the assistance of Wood River trapper Joe Jack and other members of the Nebraska Fur Harvesters Association was also critical for the study, just as it had been in the recovery of the species. Initial reintroductions were done in sparsely populated areas with little trapping pressure, but at the request of the Commission, trappers voluntarily avoided certain types of trap sets within 20 miles of the release sites, including body-gripping traps, trapping near beaver dens or lodges and where otter sign was found. As otter numbers rose in the Central Platte region, trappers learned to avoid other locations, especially short crossover trails between rivers or streams and sandpits or sloughs, and shared that insight with Wilson. "They pointed to the exact spots that they'd been avoiding for the last 10 years," Wilson said. "They'd tell me, 'I would catch an otter if I'd set my trap here, but I don't. So if you want to catch an otter, put it right there.' And we did and we caught otters." Trapped otters were transported to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Animal Research Facility, where they were anesthetized so veterinarians from UN-L and the Lincoln Children's Zoo could surgically implant a shotgun- shell-sized radio transmitter in their Kent Fricke sets a trap in the outlet of a slough south of Wood River. Fricke trapped and tracked otters for the Commission as part of a research project to determine home range, dispersal, survival and habitat needs of otters on the Central Platte River. A river otter eats a crawfish in a slough near Lewellen. PHOTO BY BOB GRIER PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER