It's a real otter - in Sussex!

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, 01 November 2016
It's a real otter - in Sussex!

By Fran Southgate

Sussex Wetlands & Living Landscapes Adviser

I can hardly believe it, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure that the day would ever come when I could report that a video has been taken of a genuine, real live otter in Sussex. We’ve had dead otters and footprints, and otter spraint, and tales of chance encounters, but we’ve never had a picture before where we could say ‘yes this is definitely an otter’.

But this is definitely an otter J …. And it’s definitely in Sussex.

As an ex-Otter Officer of ten years, and Wetland Officer for five, this is one of the most exciting bits of news I’ve heard in a very long time. As one of my colleagues said, I feel like I should do a celebratory conga around the Sussex Wildlife Trust!

But what it really means is that all those who’ve worked tirelessly for decades to help improve the health of our rivers, are finally seeing some results. The presence of otters indicates that the whole of the ecosystem is healthy – from the plants and bugs, through various shapes and sizes of slug, dragonfly, crustacean, mollusc and fish, all the way up through the food chain to the otter.

I have everything crossed that the otter decides to stay, and that it doesn’t get run over, or persecuted by misinformed people who think that they terrorise fish. With any luck, in a few years we might see two otters together, so that we can report our first breeding pair in Sussex for over 50 years to you soon.


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Comments

  • Cathy Goodman:

    As we drove back from Eastbourne and reached the Denton Corner roundabout on the A259 at about 7 pm 15/5/18we saw what looked like an otter emerge from the undergrowth, waddle along the pavement then go back into hiding. It was brown with lighter golden areas – I can’t find anything else that it resembles – there are areas of deep water nearby

    17 May 2018 18:29:38

  • gill:

    have just come back from Eastbourne on the bus and I am sure I say a pair of otters just outside Seaford

    25 Jun 2018 19:54:35

  • William Wallis:

    4/11/2018
    I just walked from Hamsey to Lewes in the company of a frisky otter which was picking a fight with the swans. First otter sighting for me in Sussex.

    04 Nov 2018 17:47:00

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