Seems like our wildlife have again taken a hit with the tragic loss of our rare Harbour Otter.
I saw two Otters a few weeks ago fishing in the harbour, what a tragedy if this one was expecting.
It could be that it is just bloated having been killed some time ago, on the other hand maybe it was in pup.
The possible cause of death looks like it might have been hit by a propeller, going by the cut at the tail end.
Yet another reminder of the hazards our wildlife have to face on a daily basis.
3 comments:
It is very sad to hear that one of the Otters in Nairn has died. Having been lucky enough to see otters in the river a few years ago I've always kept my eyes open for them every since.
Just recently I noticed some evidence that they sitll were around on one of the new pontoons.
The one thing I would say though is I would be very surprised if the animals death was caused as a result of a propellor strike.
While boat strike fatalities are not unheard of, they tend to occur in locations where high speed boats exist close to otter populations, for example off the Californian coast.
The boats that use Nairn harbour all do so at low speeds, and even an engine starting would be enough to frighten but the most domesticated otter away.
It's not likely we will ever know what happened in these circumstances but , generally , the biggest threats the UK otters are cars, dogs and pollution.................or more simply put..........us!
I believe the otter was taken away to Inverness, maybe by the Marine research unit or such like.
Perhaps we'll find out if it was pollution or something else. Like you said Anon, at the end of the day human activity is probably the root cause.
human activity is USUALLY the cause..especially for marine life when something like this in a harbour too. heck, human activity is to blame for a lot of wildlife tragedies. Huge issue i'm going to go into right now because everyone knows, but not enough people seem to care ENOUGH to actually try to help wildlife.
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