Come on CH, the odnr would never introduce something they wouldn't control!! Look at the Bobcat that was introduced for trappers!!

LOL

We have lots and lots of bobcats but aren't allowed to trap them and we hardly have any gray fox any more, but we can trap them.

Was the primary trap used a #11? And if so, how were the traps anchored.
Was there a quarantine period?

I wasn’t aware of otters from North Carolina being captured… I had always thought they were from Louisiana.

There is a man on here who was vital to the program and worked alongside Dave Hamilton. I greatly respect what MDC did in this otter re-introduction and am blessed to have some of the original foot-hold traps involved in this project. Set up modified #11s that came from Arkansas......

Only if they can get a biologist out there within 48 hours to "prove" it was a wolf kill. If you can get a biologist out there in the time frame which depends on a)finding the animal in time, b)being able to get ahold of a biologist and c)the biologist actually being willing to show up. Then it is totally up to the biologist, if he looks at it and says, "well I can't tell if the wolves killed it or just ate on it after it died of other causes." Then you don't get paid. Depends on the biologist whether he is a pro-wolf guy or an honest guy, and oftentimes on how much pressure he is getting from higher up to limit outflow of funds from his bosses budget.

Also, in many states it only pays for cattle, sheep, and maybe horses. Dogs, goats, llamas, alpacas, and other "exotics" are not covered.

I know of one ol boy here in Arkansas that was involved in MO and #11's is what he used. I would have loved to see the getting the otter out of the trap operation. Lol

There was a really nice trout stream near my place that the otter cleaned out. A lady involved with animal rights wrote an article stating that otter didn't eat trout, but preferred rough fish instead such as carp, suckers, etc.

A guy I know was deer hunting near the creek I mentioned. He was in his deer stand and watched an otter surface with a trout from a large hole in the creek, lay it on the ice and eat it. When it was gone it dove back in and came up with another trout and did the same. For several years in a row I took my quota of 4 easily. They will wipe out the trout in a stream.

Steve Gappa , Mn

It is a challenge to cut a beaver snare off the waist of a large otter....while standing in knee deep mud and water. When they are cut loose they don't always run away from you...some run at you and will try to eat you alive.

Ask me how I know.

There is a reason otter are called wolf of the waterways!!

This is my first otter i caught back in the seventies on Elk crk just north of the southern boundary ( hyway 29) for
the northern beaver and otter zone. Notice the registration tag as the otter had to be tagged as soon as removing
from trap. I had it tanned and recently donated it to the WTA with that tag still attached. Their have always been
a fair population of otter here in west central Wisconsin along the Chippewa river and it's tributaries.
There is a chunk of Chippewa river bottoms close to the Mississippi River that is and has been closed for both beaver and otter trapping for many years. It is Called the " Tiffany Bottoms and helps for keeping a good population
of both.in my area .
Bryce, do you know where they were reintroduced ?

Snare caught otters have a tendency to die within a few days of being released. That's why when we were asked to catch otters to relocate to NY, I believe, we were told no snare caught otters. This had been tried and they died when in cages within a few days of being caught. So, the #11 was the preferred trap.

We have lots and lots of bobcats but aren't allowed to trap them and we hardly have any gray fox any more, but we can trap them.[/quote]

Randy, how many cats have you released over the years? Quite a few in my area now.

Was part of it in Colorado in the early 80's another catastrophic move on the CPW's part, instant trapping regulations in the otter zones. Promises of being able to take otter when the population established, 50 years later still no take. Water sheds decimated of fish. No love lost between landowners and otters here.

Randy, how many cats have you released over the years? Quite a few in my area now.[/quote]

Dan,

The most was 6 in one year. They were all caught in water sets - bridge walls and pocket sets. Without digging out my records, I would guess around 25 or so total. Always miss several each year, thankfully. I see their tracks everywhere. I'm now starting to see bobcats in the daylight walking down township roads or eating on road kill deer along the side of the road.

North Carolina traded otters to WV for wild turkey. Thinking this was in the 70s. We even hired the WV turkey biologist Wayne Bailey. We now have a 4week spring turkey season in all 100 countries in North Carolina.

I think our otters are healthy as well. Our coastal mars areas hold lots of otters.

If I remember correctly some of the transplant otters into your state came from the Oregon coast and were traded to Colorado for some bighorn sheep.

They supposedly released them in this area in the kankakee river around 1995. I'm about 20 miles away from the kankakee and started seeing them in my ditches by 2001. Now every waterway is pretty much fishless. There is a fish and wildlife area near here with 2 small gravel pits, last year as the ice was going out around the edges the otter were rooting around under the ice in the mud and digging out turtles. They had over 75 turtles on the ice on one of the small gravel pits with there heads and feet chewed off- whatever they could get at inside the shells. They raid the duck and geese nests on the marsh and eat all the eggs and young waterfowl - this marsh used to have tons of ducks and geese, muskrats now there's very few. You used to be able to catch 5,6,7 lb bass and nice bluegill in this marsh, tons of bullhead, now nothing. They introduced one species that pretty much eliminated over a dozen others in this area. But what are you gonna do - no one in charge of these things gives a hoot. I wouldn't call a program that introduces a species of animal that pretty much erases a dozen others successful

Monster Toms,...unbelievable! Politicians words and honesty....not in the same sentence.
Around here....so far on my traplines they are beginning to show up. Still a low population.
BUT I am starting see where a guy needs to set up for them on day one and just leave those
sets alone. As they seem to show up just after you pull traps up.