discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 71
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Levin is an author and journalist.
Ripples on the River: Celebrating
the Return of the Otter
(Bloomsbury, £18) by Anna
and photographer Laurie
Campbell is out now. To find
out more about her work, visit
annalevinwriting.co.uk.
The tracks and signs of their presence were
causing ripples of excitement all along
Britain’s waterways.
M
ost people of my
generation grew up
without having otters
around. The Eurasian otter,
Lutra lutra, is native to
the UK and was once an integral part of the
landscape at the water’s edge, whether it be a
lake, a wetland, a river or the sea. But by the
end of the 1970s, this indigenous predator
had all but disappeared. Otter numbers
had suffered a catastrophic crash in Britain
and much of Western Europe. Remnant
populations were restricted to wilder areas,
such as Scotland’s Atlantic coastline and the
lakes and wetlands of Eastern Europe.
Many factors contributed to the otter’s
decline, including an increase in road
deaths, entanglement in fishing gear, loss
of habitat and pollution. The main culprit
however, was the accumulation in the
environment of toxic chemicals that had
been introduced in the 1950s. These included
the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used
in the electronics industry, the pesticide
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT),
and aldrin and dieldrin that were widely
used for sheep dips and seed dressings.
Many birds and animals were poisoned and
Around the turn of the millenium,
otters were appearing in places they
hadn’t been seen for decades
The semi-aquatic otter
will hunt along riverbanks
for fish, which make up
80 per cent of its diet
For otters seemed remote, almost mythical
creatures, belonging to another, wilder realm.
Seeing one during the mundane routine of
the daily commute into Glasgow seemed
implausible, like a golden eagle soaring over
the school run.
Such surprise and delight were shared by
many around the turn of the millennium, as
otters were appearing in places they hadn’t
been seen for decades. Though still mostly
nocturnal and elusive by nature, glimpses
of the animals were being caught – a flick
of a tapered tail midstream, a trail of silver
bubbles on the edge of the water, five-toed
footprints in the soft mud on riverbanks.