Otter spotted in the Detroit River, a hopeful sign

Authored by metrotimes.com and submitted by ShadowStorm2001

A University of Windsor student recently caught an extraordinary sight on video while on a walk near the Ambassador Bridge."A straight-up river otter in the Detroit River!" Eric Ste Marie says in the footage , taken on April 25 and posted to Facebook two days later. "Have you ever heard of something so controversial?"He added, "It's the last thing I was expecting."While the semi-aquatic mammals were once a common sight in Michigan, they were heavily hunted along with beavers during the fur trade of the 1800s. By the early 20th century, they were largely eradicated from the Detroit River, according to Great Lakes Now The Ohio Department of Natural Resources started reintroducing otters to rivers in the state in 1986, and the species repopulated, spreading west. In 2019, they were spotted at Point Pelee National Park in Ontario, the first time they had been seen there since 1918.Ste Marie's sighting on April 25 was the first photographic evidence of an otter in the Detroit River in recent years, according toEnvironmentalists view the sighting as a hopeful sign of the river healing from pollution from the industrial age.

"The Detroit Zoo is so excited to hear that the Detroit River is now clean enough for river otters and is committed to working with regional partners to further conservation efforts, including for river otters," the Detroit Zoo's Elizabeth Arbaugh told Great Lakes Now.

Beavers have also been making a comeback in the Detroit River, appearing on Belle Isle for the first time in a century about a decade ago. Earlier this year, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources killed four beavers living along the river to control their population on the island park, which has seen damage to trees and flooding.

Therealdickjohnson on May 2nd, 2022 at 21:03 UTC »

I live here. The cleanup of the detroit river will be or is already stuff of textbooks. The transformation has been nothing short of amazing. These otters are just the latest creatures to return. Many fish species, including sturgeon, bald eagles and falcons, beavers, and many other animals that were "extinct" from the area have made their way back.

It's been an international effort led by environmental groups on both sides of the border that has spanned decades. And yet, there are many who still assume this is the same river it was back in the 70s and 80s at its worst. Thankfully, it is not.

M0n5tr0 on May 2nd, 2022 at 18:37 UTC »

As a local this is extremely exciting news

FinancialTea4 on May 2nd, 2022 at 16:17 UTC »

This is wild to me because river otters seem like one of the most hardy* and opportunistic mammals alive right now. Here in Missouri they're in seemingly every stream. Even small and isolated ones. They're fearless and territorial. I just assumed they were everywhere like mice, groundhogs, or moles.