NatureBoost Episode 76: Otters
May 2026
SMA
[Intro music ♫]
>> Hey there, and welcome back to NatureBoost! The podcast where we explore the outdoors in Missouri, one adventure at a time. I'm your host Jill Pritchard, with the Missouri Department of Conservation. And if you need a break from participating in the Missouri Birding Challenge this month, I've got a fun one for you today! This episode, we're taking a look at Missouri's most playful member of the weasel family, the North American river otter. If you've seen a river otter in the wild, you wouldn't forget it. They're sleek, fast, and full of energy . . . diving, splashing, and even sliding down muddy banks, just for fun! But beyond all the charm, otters play an important role in the ecosystem.
[Music ♪]
Today, river otters can be found across the state, but that wasn't always the case. A century ago, they were nearly eliminated from Missouri because of over harvest. But thanks to restoration efforts initiated in the 80s, they're once again a part of Missouri's landscape.
>> In the late 80s, Missouri along with a lot of other states that had very low otter populations captured otters from a couple of different places in the country. But the most popular place, and where most of our otters came from, was southern Louisiana. And so, they were brought up to Missouri and we released hundreds of otters throughout the state, in a couple of strategic locations. And then, we've been tracking them since then, but we went from a few otters in a few places to now . . . we have otters statewide. But that is part of this model that we're working on, to try to get a more accurate estimate of how many otters we have in the state. We can say overall, we see them quite a bit throughout the state, which is a really great conservation story.
>> That's fur bearer biologist Nate Bowersock. You may remember him from previous episodes on beavers and black bears.
[2:02.]
Now, he let me tag along on a river otter research trip at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area last month with his team. He says otters are abundant across the state, but if they're doing so well how come I haven't seen one? Surely I'm not alone in this. The closest thing I've seen to an otter is a pet ferret owned by a girl I used to ride the schoolbus with.
>> They like to stay away from people. They tend to be more nocturnal, but they can be active throughout the day. Most of the time though, they're hanging out near water. If they hear any sort of danger, they tend to jump right into the water and swim away. They're really good at escaping people's eye, if they want to.
>> River otters are just one of Missouri's semi-aquatic predators, meaning they live partly on land and in water. Their long bodies, webbed feet and thick, tapered tails make them powerful swimmers. Their ears and nose close when they go under water, and they can remain submerged for up to 4 minutes. That's insane!
Now, they're not quite as graceful on land, getting around with a kind of bounding run. But in snow or along muddy banks, they'll transition to belly sliding instead. In fact, research has shown that many times they're not doing it to travel, they're doing it just for fun.
[Music ♪]
Otters are very social critters, generally living in family groups and communicating through a variety of ways.
[Otters chirping.]
>> They have little chirp noises they can do, which is from my experiences trying to communicate with each other . . . "where you're at, what's going on?" To when they're more happy, you kind of hear more of like a little lowkey growling, purring-type sound. So they do have different vocalizations for different situations.
>> So, I was on social media the other day, which is just fantastic . . . [laughing.]
[4:02.]
And, I saw a video about how sea otters dance before they poop?
>> [Laughing.]
>> I was wondering if river otters do that as well.
>> Yes, and otters are scent marking a location. There is kind of a little . . . you could arguably call it a dance-like position, where they kind of wiggle their back end and shake around. I would guess it just helps to distribute their scent around an area. And yes, I would say they do some sort of dance-like behavior while scent marking.
So, otters have what we call "latrine sights." They will come out of the water in very similar places, over and over again. They will scent mark there, they'll go to the bathroom there, and in many cases they'll bring their prey up right into that same area and feed on it before going back into the water. So, it is kind of a nice thing when you are studying otters, is if you can identify these latrine sights, it's pretty great for you. They are likely to return there, and there's always a sign to help point you in the right direction.
>> Okay, so this is one . . . there's some otter scat.
>> Disgustingly [unclear.]
>> Yeah . . .
>> How do you know that's otter scat?
>> You can see fish scales in here, and then just the color, it has kind of . . . it's darker in color, but it almost in my mind gets almost a greenish, bluish, black color. It's a fairly unique coloration. But yeah, the scales are the big thing. Right here is just a classic crossover, where you can actually, literally see the trail in the grass, coming up from the water line, and then we have the other side of the crossover.
>> You know this was made by otters, this trail?
>> It's habitual. They are habitual . . . which makes trapping somewhat easy, but it's still very difficult. But because they use the same place over and over again, coming in and out of the water . . .
>> Okay, got it. I think that's something cool about animals, is that a lot of times they're kind of like people.
[6:02.]
They have the exact same routine, and routes that they like to take.
>> Oh yeah, exactly. On the small scale, especially for aquatic animals . . . you have to think, otters when they're in the water, nothing can mess with them. They're built for swimming. If you're in the water with an otter, good luck!
On land, they have say . . . a coyote has a decent chance at maybe taking one out, but at the same time if an otter stays close to water, or has a very clear path to go in and out of the water, they're then in a better place for survival.
>> This is their safe zone.
>> Exactly.
[Music ♪]
You may be wondering, what kind of research trip is this? Well, like most things in wildlife work, it's all about the science. Nate and his team were headed out to Eagle Bluffs to trap otters and fit them with transmitters for a study tracking harvest and survival.
[Music ♪]
>> So from this study, our hope is to get survival estimates. So, how long does an otter live, if they do die, what is the cause of death . . . and then, also harvest rates. "Harvest" is a type of mortality for otters. The long term goal is that we have a population model where we're using right now . . . the model is called a Statistical Population Reconstruction, or SPR model. Long story short, for it to function properly, we need survival estimates for otters, for this model.
Currently, we do not have an up-to-date survival estimate for our otter population. So, the hope of this project is to establish that estimate.
[Unclear audio.]
We've had otters cross in front of us here before, right in here.
>> You see an otter track down here?
>> There's some otter tracks down there, yeah. So, weasels all have 5 toes.
[8:00.]
That's one of the many ways to tell what a weasel track is. You can see 5 toes with kind of a . . . like a half moon shaped footpad. Whether it's an otter, a badger, a wolverine . . . there's some degree of similarity. Arguably a bear track is just a ginormous one, because again, 5 toes you can see. So that's one of the things that we're looking for . . . for a sign, we look for the 5 toes.
Raccoons can throw us off, but they have long fingers that you can see in the track compared to the otters. You just see the toes, and then the footpad.
>> Once the team identifies an area with frequent otter activity, they set up their live foothold traps.
>> So, where should we . . .
[Water splashing sounds, multiple speakers.]
>> You could shovel it . . . [unclear.]
>> Yeah, shovel it. [unclear.]
>> Thank you.
[Hammering sounds, unclear.]
>> A big thing, I think sometimes people miss out . . . is when we live trap animals. Whether it's an otter, a coyote, a bobcat . . . we're using foothold traps that trappers use when they're trying to trap these animals for their fur. But these are also the techniques that we've used as scientists to study these animals, to catch them, and for bobcats or . . . coyotes, wolves, whatever. We'll put a radio collar on.
Otters, we have to actually surgically implant a transmitter in them, but it's still the same technique. We're live capturing them, and holding them in place for us to immobilize them before we work them. I think sometimes people forget that there's all sorts of kinds of traps that can be used, and even though these are popularly used by trappers for the fur industry, we also use them scientifically, too.
[Music ♪]
So, we need to talk about something that comes up with river otters. They've kind of earned a reputation as a problem animal, mainly because they eat fish. And sometimes, those are the same fish people are hoping to catch.
[10:02.]
But Nate explains, sometimes perception doesn't always line up with the data.
>> Sometimes people overlook the impact that carnivores have on the landscape. In most cases, it's a very positive impact. But a lot of folks just see it as competition. With otters, they eat fish and other animals in the water. So a lot of people point to them as a problem animal, because they're eating the animals that they're trying to catch. But in many cases, otters are actually helping stabilize the ecosystem. There's overabundant fish populations . . . they can help bring those populations into check. We've actually done studies here in Missouri to show that there are certain age classes of fish that otters prefer, which inevitably helps make the population healthier from that, by removing certain age classes from the fish population.
So, they really do serve a purpose, and it's a misconception to think that an otter in the ecosystem is negatively impacting the local fish population. Very rarely does that happen. In most cases than not . . . otters are a good thing for the ecosystems that they're found in.
[Music ♪]
Now, full disclosure. We didn't end up trapping any otters the day I was out with Nate and his team, much to my dismay. You know, and that's just a part of wildlife research, but also . . . very typical of otters. They're smart, they're elusive, they're hard to track . . . which also makes them tough to film. Years ago when MDC wanted to educate the public on otters, one filmmaker came up with a creative solution. That filmmaker was Glenn Chambers, MDC's longtime cinematographer, and former biologist. Instead of waiting around for wild otters to show up on cue, he brought the otters to him.
[12:00.]
>> And, this is a 6 week old baby otter begging for food . . . at this stage, we call this chirping.
[Baby otter chirping.]
>> In the early 1990s, Glenn raised otter pups in captivity. Caring for them, and working closely with them so they would be comfortable around people and cameras. And that allowed him to capture incredible close-up footage of otter behavior. Moments that would have been extremely difficult to film in the wild. Here's an interview with Glenn while he was raising his second pair of otter pups, back in 1997.
>> These animals were born in captivity. The Conservation Department does not believe in taking baby animals out of the wild and making pets out of them. We get them when they're tiny, and socialize them so that we can take them to programs with them, and do films with them. A major concern when you first get a baby otter is, to begin the imprinting process for these animals, so I can take them into the wild. They'll be unrestrained, and we can do underwater photography. I'll sleep with these animals from anywhere from . . . 6 weeks to 3 months, depending on how the imprint is going.
>> Glenn was an interesting guy. He had raised wild animals before. Otters weren't the first to imprint on him. In 1989, Glenn imprinted a flock of Canada geese for an MDC film, capturing some truly incredible footage. In one scene, he's in a boat on the river as the geese fly in tight formation right alongside him, close enough to nearly reach out and touch. The flock was eventually released back to the wild, but Glenn's otter pups would stay with him. Not only appearing on screen, but also becoming a part of educational programs.
Glenn would host otter programs at MDC nature centers, giving people the rare chance to see live otters up close. Though his otters seemed tame, Glenn was always careful to remind people that they were not pets, they were wild animals.
[14:01.]
>> You know, these animals are vicious animals. As they get older, they get more aggressive. When they're at this age, they're fine. The older they get, the more difficult they are to work with. They don't like to be held now . . . they don't like to be petted. As they get older, they graduate more into the independent mode. I have scars right there, and big red marks on the back of my hands from otter bites . . . I get otter bitten probably about once a week. Otters are an aquatic carnivore. They're in the weasel family. They have scent glands, and they can really, really squirt, and really, really stink. It isn't as nasty as a skunk, but it's pretty bad.
[Music ♪]
It's worth noting what Glenn did was unique, and it's not something you'd see today. At MDC, we encourage people to leave wildlife wild, and for good reason. It's the safest and healthiest approach for animals and for people. But Glenn's work represents a different chapter in that story, one that offered a rare look at a species most people didn't get to observe up close. And through that experience, he gained insights into river otters that few others had.
>> I've learned more by being with them, by swimming with them, by watching their behavior, and I've learned some things that aren't even in the books about otters. I go to the bottom with them, watch what they're doing down there, and film them. That's the payola for me, because these animals at that stage of the game are acting and behaving like wild otters. They're chasing fish, or catching crayfish . . . they're doing things otters do, and that's really pretty neat because you know, people in literature don't report things like that, because they never see it . . . because they're never down there with them. Their most ambitious part of the day is playtime. They really enjoy living life, they're a perfect example of the way we as people should behave a lot of times.
[16:00.]
[Music ♪]
>> Whether it's tracking otters across Missouri's waterways, or capturing their behavior on camera, every piece of the story helps us understand them a little better. Today, that work continues through research and conservation, like the study Nate and his team are leading to ensure that otters remain a healthy part of Missouri's landscape.
And while Glenn Chambers took a more unconventional path, his work brought people closer to wildlife in a way that left a lasting impression. And while those approaches may look different, they share the same purpose: understanding wildlife so we can better protect it.
For more on the North American river otter, visit our field guide at missouriconservation.org. And while you're at it, check out our youtube channel to view Glenn Chambers' phenomenal footage of his imprinted otters.
Thanks again to MDC Fur Bearer Biologist Nate Bowersock, to Digital Media Producer Peg Craft, and to you, for listening to another episode of NatureBoost! Discover more of Missouri's wildlife and outdoor stories at missouriconservation.org, by subscribing to the Missouri Conservationist magazine, and by giving us a follow on Facebook and Instagram. I'm Jill Pritchard with the Missouri Department of Conservation, encouraging you to get your daily dose of the outdoors!
[Outro music ♫]
[Otters chirping.]
[End of podcast.]