Keeping track of El Hondo’s otters
AFTER it was reported last week that otters have bred for the first time in El Hondo natural park, regional environment department staff have given more information on how they have been trying to follow the steps of this elusive mammal.
They released a series of photographs showing otter footprints and areas where they have been looking for evidence of their movements.
“We are trying to find out exactly where they are living and which waterways and paths they use to move around,” explained a spokesman.
They have been joined by volunteers who have helped out with the work.
The department released a video last week of a mother and her two offspring, taken with a hidden camera in the protected area which lies in the municipalities of Elche and Crevillente.
The otters were filmed at night in an area close to the lagoons operated by the Riegos de Levante irrigation collective.
The spokesman reminded that the otter had been considered to be in danger of extinction in the southeast of Spain during the last decade.
However, it was found to be venturing further down the River Segura and was first spotted in El Hondo in 2017.
The improvement in water
quality has been crucial and allowed otters ‘ to become established in the park’.
The network of irrigation channels in the southern zone of El Hondo have functioned as an ecological corridor, allowing this species to the reach this
wetland, added the spokesman.
Otters can measure up to 120 centimetres in length and weigh up to eight kilos.
This aquatic mammal lives in rivers, lakes and wetlands which have ‘ good quality water’, he noted.