West Virginia’s river otters belong to its moving water, and the state’s 79 records read like a gazetteer of rivers and reservoirs: Jackson’s Mill, Monongahela National Forest, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, Summersville Lake Wildlife Management Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River. Lewis County leads the county list, followed by Fayette, Randolph, and Nicholas.
Built for the water
Everything about an otter is engineered for swimming: a streamlined, muscular body, webbed feet, a thick rudder of a tail, and ears and nostrils that close underwater. Fish and crayfish make up most of its diet in West Virginia’s streams, hunted by sight and touch in pools and along undercut banks. An otter may travel miles of waterway in a few days, so a single sighting is often a snapshot of an animal just passing through.
Year-round, even on ice
Otters do not hibernate, and West Virginia’s reports arrive in every month, with mild highs in late winter and again in November. Cold water costs an otter little; its dense underfur keeps it hunting through mountain winters, and it will travel and slide across snow and ice between open pools. Those slides, along with webbed tracks and scat left on prominent rocks and logs, are often the surest sign of an otter on a winter bank.
Status in West Virginia
NatureServe ranks the North American river otter S4, Apparently Secure, in West Virginia, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
