Otter, otter, everywhere…

Water, Otter water otter, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink. Nor muskrat, loon or mink.

The Rime if the Ancient Mariner

Yesterday two otters were spied at the dam, a little one who made the regular jaunt through the flow device pipe, and a larger one who had to go over the top of the dam in the customary fashion. They hung around to lower the fish population in both ponds, before being chased off by dad who followed the big one over the secondary dam while the little one was still being cornered by the two year old.

Since were in fall it’s likely we are seeing mother and child. Otters might venture on their own once they’re weaned at ten weeks, but they are more likely to hang with the parent until just before the new brood comes along. Here’s a weird fact about the otter you won’t read on just ANY website. Otter droppings are called “spraints“.  Apparently they often smell so uniquely of fish they get their own name. The spraints we see often in the beavers section of creek are red with shells of broken crayfish.

It’s not all good news this morning, as we read about what I would call an “Epic Nature Fail” yesterday. This from the state of Ohio, who brought us the alarming tale of the woman who beat the fawn to death with a shovel. (There is clearly a lot about nature residents need to learn.) Don’t worry, the Lowe-Volk Park nature center in Crestline is doing its part! They’re offering a presentation on beavers Tuesday night. That sounds promising! Learning about beavers is important. Whose doing the lecture?

Join Crawford Park District naturalist Josh Dyer for a program about beavers at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center, 2401 Ohio 598. Dyer will discuss the life history, past and current status of beavers in Ohio and Crawford County, and the beaver dominated fur trade. Sharing from his 15 years of trapping experience, Dyer will give some trapping how-to’s and funny anecdotes.

Trapping how-to’s and funny anecdotes? From a ‘naturalist/trapper’? At a nature center? Are you kidding me? The mind reels. The jaw drops. Funny anecdotes? “Yeah one time this beaver got his foot stuck in the conibear trap and was thrashing all around trying to get free until his lungs exploded. It was a hilarious!” Will there be other lectures from the comical assassination of diverse wildlife? Tales of the skunk killer? The raccoon remover? The dog catcher? I am fairly sure that whatever anecdotes a man gleans in 15 years of trapping should not be the subject of lecture in a Nature Park, unless there’s been a road-to-Damascus moment somewhere in there.

It’s not just that the abysmally named Lowe-Volk Nature Center invited the trapper to discuss his experiences. I’m sure they’re colorful. Remember the trapper who told the media that he was only killing the ‘soldier’ beavers?  That was in your next door neighbor state of Pennsylvania. (Apparently a unique ‘beaver ignorance belt’ girdles much of the middle of our united states.) No its not just that they invited the trapper in. Or that some one on staff at the nature center (maybe Josh himself!) actually sat down at the computer and typed the press release that included a sentence like ‘trapping how-to’s and funny anecdotes’. Its not that that the obliging local paper, the Bucyrus Forum, assigned the story to some reporter who thought it was a good idea to actually print. All this is common enough, in the daily horrors of beaver chronicles. It’s that somewhere, at some kitchen table or living room, there are actually men and women who will see this column and think amiably to themselves, ooh lets have the hamburgers early so we can bring the kids down to the nature center tuesday and hear some of those hilarious trapping stories!

Is there no PETA in Ohio?

Gosh I wish I could be there. I would sit in the front row and take a notebook to write down every single fact Mr. Dyer relays about beavers so I can see if even three of them are accurate. Of course I wrote the nature center. Maybe you should too.