River otters split their more than 2,600 Florida records almost evenly between two very different kinds of wet habitat, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal marsh and Big Cypress National Preserve’s swamp country, tied at 16 named sightings each, with Merritt Island, Paynes Prairie, and the Everglades broadening the record across refuges and prairie in between.
Records peak in January, with December and March close behind, then fall by more than 75 percent into the summer low. Cooler weather likely makes otters easier to spot moving between fishing spots on open water, though this species stays active through Florida’s mild winters rather than truly changing its habits season to season. NatureServe hasn’t assigned Florida a numeric rank for the species (SNR).
