The Sioux Falls city government learned from the killer 1972 Rapid City flood and decided to make a river green way along the southern and southeastern path of the Big Sioux River through the city instead of building neighborhoods and businesses in the flood plain beyond what was already there (not a lot at the time). About 4 miles of that loop doesn't even have any dikes.Good habitat for resident waterfowl, some WTD, and now some otters.

Otters in the lower Big Sioux River drainage is a more recent development, driven by the Santee Sioux Tribe government releasing some along their little stretch of the river up at Flandreau and probably some wheeling and dealing done by the SD GFP Wildlife Division bringing in otters from some other states, although those details are never really known much by the public, except maybe a two-paragraph news story somewhere.Anyway, those of us that have spent any time in the last decade or so walking Big Sioux sandbars between Sioux Falls and say Newton Hills south of Canton (about 30 river miles) have seen otter sign for a decade or more. It just took the SD GF&P Commission to grow a backbone to authorize a very limited otter season in South Dakota the last few years. The lower Big Sioux drainage isn't the only place otter expansion is happening in the state, the northeast corner is also being colonized, mainly coming up the end of the Minnesota River drainage and possibly down from southeast North Dakota. I think the first 20 otter quota took seven days in November to fill, the last two years a bit long, maybe 11-12 days in 2024.

However, the photo capture recently of a whole otter family or group inside the city was just too cute for the local TV news company to resist. I've never held a dead slider in my hands but from what I've seen and read on here, this group looks pretty fat and sassy. I guess they do well on smaller carp and bullheads (dorsal spine and all). I'm sure a good number of the city folk would love to run down to hug and kiss the otters if they could. That sort of mentality is common, even here in a smaller metro area. Maybe in the next year or a few, I'll be one of the lucky SD trappers to nail a slider, although I would prefer to nail a few western bcats first

https://www.keloland.com/news/local...x9c_J4yBUFOpg_aem_eiVzp6vbB5693UovGrXIBw

After seeing an otter caught in a cage trap, they wouldn’t pet it but once. If they preyed on deer and rabbits, coyotes would be extinct from starvation.

The retired teacher quoted in the above new article was a high school teacher of mine before he became an assistant principal of the high school (probably 1,600+ students in my day). He is one of those guys who is "never wrong."

I don't know the whole history of river otter in southeast South Dakota but I think he repeats a well used trope that there were some here originally. I have never seen or read any historical accounting of otters being in the Sioux Falls area the first 50 or so years of the city's existence. Maybe there were some, but maybe there weren't. Mr. G. certainly wasn't around in the 1920s or '30s. Overall, a lot less trees around,even along the river, between 1870 and say 1930. Not that otters probably need trees but I don't know how much of a prairie animal river otters really were back in the 19th century.

one of the few animals that kills just to kill, I have witness it a few times now,

One of my favorite Animals to trap

And one of my least favorite to flesh.

I have two "retired" canoe paddles on the workshop wall. Each was used to release an otter from a stop loss trap tangled up in cattails in the dark. Both harrowing adventures that will forever be imprinted in my mind.

They are a joy to witness on the river while fishing or trapping. Once while rowing to the next set in the dark I heard a rhythmic splash with each dip of the oars. Turning my head the Nite Lite revealed an otter alongside the jon boat leaping over the oar with each stroke.

Often I witness otter while in the tree stand along a river bank. One wintry day I watched one repeatedly dive into a hole in the ice and return with a bullhead. Back to the bank it went and the remains joined a pile that had been there awhile.

Very nice.Never would have guessed that otters were called sliders......thought you was talking about turtles when I opened the thread...lol

x2....would much rather flesh a coon or beaver any day.

They are a powerful, mean vicious animal that I would hate to have my dog run into. A tube of muscle. Growing up, they werent legal to harvest in Iowa and dad caught several we had to release. A full grown adult was a challenge to hold onto in the noose when I was 12. One chased one of dads buddies who helped him release one after it was dropped in the water from on top of the bank.

A few years back a couple ladies were tubing the Jefferson river near Lewis and Clark Caverns and were attacked by an otter. They had pictures of her in the hospital and she was tore up. I guess it wasn’t your ordinary otter, to kind of quote Monty Python.

Get after em! I actually don't find them that bad to put up.

me either

That was my first thought , that or a drown line.
As long as there's fish and small mammals , otter can live there.
Just my thought on it.

I have seen otters and otter sign well into SD while pheasant hunting, sometimes around flowages and other times in the around sloughs well away creeks or ditches, Their everywhere there is water with fish or rats,

I have also seen Fisher tracks 40 miles WNW of Watertown SD and I heard it was caught during the spring coon and skunk bounty program the next spring in that same area.it was released.

They're nice to hold when they're dead, alive I don't think it would be my first choice. They have an attitude, like all weasels

Have picked up a live beaver by the tail twice.I will pass on the otter

I saw a YouTube video where they had 2 "rescued" otters, that were unable to be released in a pen. The worker at the "rescue" said the female otter had taken some fingers off of two people and had bitten more. Apparently when people put their fingers through the wire or tried to to hand feed her, she would act friendly, until she could get a hold of their hands with her teeth and then viciously attack.

Keith

Ouch

Missouri's huggers got the state to stock Otters here and they found a HUGE problem on their hands. After a short honeymoon, the Otters did what they do best and nearly destroyed the fishery in Mo. Went from happy times to BEGGING trappers to trap them in a few short years. Not only the natural fishery's in Mo's plethora of small streams, but they have decimated folks lively hood by cleaning out fish farms as well. Careful what you wish for!