Environmental Politics-Research-Lucie Krivanek

Lucie Krivanek

Professor Joe Underhill

Environmental River Politics

Research Project

20 October 2014 – 22 November 2014

River Otter on the Mississippi

While paddling down the Mississippi River on our classes Environmental Politics

trip, we saw a lot of many different species. Bald eagles, great herons, egrets, mussels,

turtles, and many humans. When I saw these organisms, I really started thinking about

how they use the river as a home and how, in many ways, they use the river as a source of

survival. After we arrived back to Augsburg campus, I started looking into one of the

many species on the Mississippi River and one that also happens to be my favorite

animal, and very close to my heart; the river otter. After doing a little of digging, I found

that the river otter has been an endangered species and has a protection towards them

placed on society because of them being a scarce sighting on the Mississippi River. This

fact had me thinking about why they needed these protections on the river otter. What

impact does the river otter have on the river and why does mankind find it important to

help save the presence of the river otter? Is the way that the river otter uses the river as a

home and a source linked to these answers? So, first, I will talk about how the river otter

uses the river as a home and how it is a source of living for the otter. Then I will touch

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base on why the river otter is important to the ecosystem of the river, especially the

Mississippi River.

The way that river otters use the river as a home is they live fairly close to the

water’s edge so they can easily access the water for protection and/or food. The river

otter, even though it is an apex predator, is hunted by coyotes and wolves. The river otter

also uses the river as great source of life. It also provides a great playful and learning

environment for the entire otter family. When otters are born, they surprisingly do not

like water and cannot swim. The mother otter, after her young have reached a certain age,

will pick up her pups, no matter how much they kick and cry at her, and will carry them

to the water’s edge and drop them in the water. If they try to escape the new and strange

feeling of being in the water, she will drag them back in and cage them in the shallow

part of the water. Right then and there, she teaches her pups how to swim and teaches

them that the river holds a great environment for them to hunt, play, and stay safe. If you

look at one of the images I attached to this paper, there is a great picture of an otter’s

home. They typically live in dens right on the river’s shoreline and, over time; they build

a pathway that resembles a slide for them to access the river easily. Otters are also found

by many other water sources, for example, ponds and lakes. They also use these water

sources in the same way they use rivers; as a home and source of survival. There was

once a story my Grandmother told me about an otter she spotted on her lake up north by

Grand Rapids. My Grandmother was sitting on her dock, looking out at the lake – which

happens to be a protected lake, so it is very serene – and she happened to spot an otter

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swimming just off one the islands in the middle of the lake. My Grandmother then

happened to notice a bald eagle perched on a branch on one of the trees on the island the

otter was swimming by. The eagle had clearly spotted the otter and was waiting for the

right time to make its move. It eventually took off and started soaring over where the

otter was located and finally dived. At the last possible second, the otter ducked down

into the water and got away before the eagle could snatch him up. The eagle,

begrudgingly, went back to his perch and, low and behold, the otter popped right back up

where it had originally been. My Grandmother then told me, with complete and under

admiration and confusion, the otter came up from underwater and stared at the eagle; in a

way, mocking him. The eagle tried again to catch this punk otter for lunch, but again, the

otter ducked down just in time and would come back up when the eagle went back to his

perch. This story really describes how, even when faced with danger in a place where the

otter is supposedly save, the otter will make a playful game out of the danger. It is as if

the otter knows that, no matter where it goes, either on land or in the water, there will be

danger for it; so they might as well have fun with it.

While reading through multiple articles, I noticed that the articles really focused

on the otters presence and how having these little mammals on the river as very

important. After I sat and thought about why this might be the case, it hit me. They are

important because of the simple life cycle and food chain of their ecosystem. Otters eat

many living organisms in and on the river such as fish, amphibians, smaller mammals,

and even the mussel (Lewanski, September 20, 2011, Friends of the Mississippi River). I

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should even point out that, further on down the stretch of the Mississippi, down in the

New Orleans area, if an otter can locate and find an alligator small enough, and if the

otter thinks it can do it, it will attack and eat the alligator. The river otter, because of its

size, also serves as a food source to such predators as the coyote and wolf. If the river

otter were to suddenly not be a part of this ecosystem, there would be a dramatic shift in

the organisms the otters eat to a great abundance of them and the competiveness for the

species that hunt the otter will become overwhelming. But, we also see the issue of an

over abundance of river otters; this would cause the organisms they eat to drastically

reduce in population, which is also not desirable for the ecosystem. Because of this, the

government has allowed hunting for otters – their pelts are still very desirable because of

their softness – to help control the population of otters, but they also established a set

limit of otters that can be trapped so they can, again, control the population. This is

proven by Tom Lewanski’s article on the web page Friends of the Mississippi River, that

“due to trapping, loss of habitat and significant water pollution, these mammals were

nearly extinct in the Minnesota stretch of the Mississippi River by the 1950s” (Lewanski,

September 20, 2011, Friends of the Mississippi River). One of the reasons we really want

the river otter to remain a constant presence on the river is because of invasive species;

one in particular, the zebra mussel. In Calvin R, Fremling’s book Immortal River: The

Upper Mississippi in Ancient and Modern Times, he describes invasive species as

“exotic” species. “Many people think the work exotic means sexy, strangely beautiful, or

enticing. But in ecological circles it simply means animals and plants that are foreign, not

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native. With no natural predators to control them in their new environment, populations

of invading exotic species can “explode,” swiftly dominating habitats, and making

exotics a major cause of the continuing loss of biological diversity throughout the world”

(Fremling, 271). This was the same case with zebra mussels “native to the Caspian Sea

region of Asia” (Fremling, 272), on the Mississippi River. Because of how rapidly this

specie reproduces, we want river otters on the river to eat as many as they can. So, in a

way, we want to use as many river otters as possible to fight the infestation of zebra

mussels in the Mississippi River.

One can see now, that, due to a restoring of river habitat; I saw a lot of restoring of

water front along the Mississippi, that the river otter is making a great comeback.

Holdhusen’s article titled the Distribution of river otter within the Mississippi National

River and Recreation Area: Results from a two-year study of winter sign surveys, shows

that the sightings of river otters is up compared to the 1950s and are continuing to go up.

Another great reason why the otter population is going up, from a fact we learned about

in class; is that the river is much cleaner than it was in the 50s. The river used to be a

great dumping source for many industries and people living on it. Basically, the river was

a huge toilet of continuously flowing water full of trash, human sewage, and many

chemicals from plants and industries. With the cleaning up of the river and the many

Clean Water Act of 1972 which, according to Michael E. Kraft in his book,

Environmental Policy and Politics, is “mostly on “end-of-pipe” controls on municipal

and industrial discharges” (Kraft, 33), has allowed the river to rebounded to a great living

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location for many organisms; including the river otter. If you are wondering if the stretch

of river you live near is safe enough for you and you want to know if river otters are

present in your area, here are some clear signs. First, the obvious den with the pathway

into the water. These are very easy to spot because of the distinct pathway from the river

to the den; it will resemble a slide because of the otter’s long, low to the ground body

creating a slide like path. Another clear and obvious sign, are the otter’s foot prints.

Otter’s feet are webbed, unlike many other species found in its weasel family. The two

front feet resemble, shape wise, a cats print, but, an otter has five toes, including claw

marks. The back paws are seen as slightly longer, with extra padding on the back of the

print, and again, with five toes. One more sign is the broken and abandoned shells of

clams. Otters will use anything they can find, usually rocks, or, in the case of sea otters,

they will carry a special ‘Clam cracking’ rock in a hidden pouch on their abdomens for

whenever they find their next meal, they are ready to crack into it. These broken shells

can be found scattered along the rivers shore and all the way up the otter’s den. If you are

swimming in the water, you may find some open shells there too, for, otters are

multitalented and can swim, crack open dinner, and then eat it all at once. If these signs

are around the area of the river or other water source you are by, than the river is very

safe for your use as well.

So, we have learned that the river otter is very important to the balance of the

river’s ecosystem. Their population stays consistent due to species that hunt them and

humans trapping them. But, there are guidelines for hunting the river otter; a hunter can

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only trap a certain number of otters a season/year to make sure that the specie continues

to survive. River otters also have a great presence on the river. We have also learned why

it is politically right to have otters on the river. They help keep invasive species, like the

zebra mussel, from becoming too populated, by learning that they can be a new addition

to their diet. When you see otters on the river, you know that the water is clean enough

for you to be there as well. Their existence helps our existence, and both the human and

the river otter species are connected because of the river. It is a very important and fragile

connection that we, as people who live by and on the Mississippi River, do not want to

see broken. We never want to see the river fall back into the state it was in the 1950s;

intense water pollution, very little waterfront habitat or ecosystem, and very little river

otter sightings. The river’s ecosystem will never be complete without the river otter. It

offers that last sort of balance onto the major weighing scale that is the Mississippi River

ecosystem.

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Bibliography

Boyle, S. (2006, September 2). North American River Otter (Lontra

canadensis): A Technical Conservation Assessment. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/projects/scp/assessments/northamericanriverotter.pdf

Fremling, Calvin R. "Vital Strands in the River's Web of Life." In Immortal

River: The Upper Mississippi in Ancient and Modern times. Madison: University of

Wisconsin Press, 2005.

Holdhusen, A. (2011, July 1). Distribution of river otter (Lontra canadensis)

within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area: Results from a two-year

study of winter sign surveys. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://www.nps.gov/miss/naturescience/upload/MISS_Otter_2011.pdf

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Kraft, Michael E. "Judging the State of the Environment."

In Environmental Policy and Politics. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 2001.

Lewanski, T. (2011, September 20). National Park Service confirms river

otters rebounding. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://www.fmr.org/news/current/river_otters_rebounding-2011-09

McCormick, L. (2013, January 23). Speak up for River Otters in

Louisiana’s Mardi Gras Pass. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://blog.nwf.org/2013/01/speak-up-for-river-otters-in-louisianas-mardi-gras-pass/

Olson, D. (2009, August 22). River otters return to Mississippi River in

Twin Cities. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://www.northlandoutdoors.com/event/article/id/130907/publisher_ID/40/

Polechla, P. (n.d.). Action Plan for North American Otters. Retrieved

October 20, 2014, from https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/html/Otter/13.html

River Otter Basic Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://www.macalester.edu/academics/environmentalstudies/threerivers/studentprojects/

LakesStreamsRiversFall09/RiverOtterWeb/RiverOtterBasicFacts.html

River Otter: Minnesota DNR. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/riverotter.html

United States. National Park Service. (2014, October 16). River Otter

Overview. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from

http://www.nps.gov/miss/naturescience/otterover.htm

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