Iberianature » Otters in Spain

Wildlife trip report to Extramadura

nick — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:16:37 +0000

My friend Lisa has posted this excellent wildlife watching report to Extremadura. I love reports like this that don’t just focus on the birds. Lots of interesting stuff on insects, amphibians and as you can see, she chanced upon these otters at a “a small, reed-fringed reservoir” somewhere near Torrejon el Rubio. “Gambolling along the spit they chased away a competing Little egret before returning to the water and swimming towards the main body of the reservoir, followed by a very excited otter-watcher.” Read more here

Otters no longer threatened

nick — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:40:28 +0000

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

Otter watching in the Catalan Pyrenees

nick — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:01:54 +0000

Simon chanced upon this beautiful otter in the Catalan Pyrenees.

There could hardly seem a less promising place to go naturalising than the stretch of the Noguera Pallaresa just downstream from Tremp, ‘capital’ of the Pallars Jussà comarca in the Catalan pre-Pyrenees.

Read on iberianture

Asturian otters on video

nick — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:40:55 +0000

Busybee of the forum has uploaded this rather nice video of otters feeding and playing in Arriondas, Asturias. The images from the second half (1m:30s) are excellent. Follow the forum thread

Or watch the video full size here

Photographing otters

nick — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:08:54 +0000

Ángel Jesús Calleja Hernándéz and David Ánarez Sánchéz (on fotonatura) have some remarkable photos and interesting text on otters in Extremadura and tips on how to photograph them. The otters were photographed in a small reservoir somewhere in Extremadura. There is a healthy population of otters in Extremadura and they have been used for reintroduction campaigns in the rest of Spain (eg Aiguamolls de Emporda.