The otter is no longer threatened in Spain and Portugal and now occupies almost the entire Iberian Peninsula, with populations only still under threat in Guipúzcoa, Almería and Alicante. As elsewhere in Europe, otter populations hit their nadir in the 1980s, but increased protection for wetlands and the animal itself, the banning of poisons such as DDT and the clean-up of rivers have allowed the nutria as it is known in Spanish to recover. The otter has for instance returned to the provinces of Barcelona, Gerona, Huesca, Navarra, La Rioja, Cantabria, Palencia, Segovia and Valladolid. ADN
See also lots of sightings of Spanish otters on the forum
Tags: lutra lutra in Spain, otter distribution in Spain, otter recovery in Europe, otter status in Spain, Spanish otters