Virginia’s 667 river otter records trace the state’s water from end to end, from the mountain streams around Natural Bridge State Park and the headwaters within Jefferson National Forest to the tidal creeks of Virginia Beach, Northumberland, and Accomack counties on the coast. Few Virginia mammals split their record so evenly between the mountains and the Tidewater.
A hunter of fish and crayfish
An otter makes its living in the water, taking fish, crayfish, frogs, and the occasional duckling or muskrat, and it needs two things close together: permanent water with enough prey, and an undisturbed bank with a den site, often an old beaver or muskrat burrow or a hollow log. Records from Hughlett Point State Natural Area Preserve on the Chesapeake side, Briery Creek Lake in the Piedmont, and Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest show how readily it uses reservoirs, rivers, and coastal marsh alike.
Winter is otter season
Unlike most of Virginia’s mammals, the river otter’s record is strongest in the cold months, peaking in January and March and sinking to its lowest in July and August. Otters do not hibernate, and winter works in their favor. They travel widely along open water, cross ice and snow on foot, and leave their long slides stamped into snowy banks. In summer the same animals keep to dense bankside cover and do much of their fishing at night.
Status in Virginia
NatureServe ranks the North American river otter S4, Apparently Secure, in Virginia, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
