Possible otter sighting from White Rock Canyon, near Frijoles

From Jim Stuart, Jan. 21, 2011:

Dan Williams of NMDGF (Public Info & Outreach), who you’ll remember photo’d otter releases in 2009, was in our dept. plane this morning over White Rock Canyon and saw a dark animal moving through shallow water in the Rio Grande near Frijoles Canyon . He is pretty sure, but not absolutely certain, that it was an otter based on color and its movements. They made a second pass over the spot but could not find the animal again. If it was an otter, it’s consistent with our previous evidence from White Rock Canyon.

La Mesilla otter sighting location visit/Jan 13, 2011

This is the location where Frances Wilmeth observed 3 otters in La Mesilla, on the Rio Grande,

on January 5. They were on an ice shelf on the far(west) side of the river, and then went into the river, cavorted, and swam upstream.

We found these probable otter tracks a little below the site on the east shore. They looked about a week old & had been frozen and thawed repeatedly. The knife is 3 1/4 inches long.

Fresh otter sign at Buckman/White Rock Cyn

Tracks are at far end of this beach.
Otter scat and tracks.
Jan. 8, 2011 - I finally made it out to the Rio Grande at the end of Buckman Rd. I hiked down river and found fresh otter tracks in the same spot I found them in January 2009. A stretch of about 20 feet of the snow covered beach was full of tracks and rolling impressions, with scat at the south end. They looked to be 1-3 days old.(Jan. 5 was the day that Frances Wilmeth saw 3 otters at La Mesilla, about 10(?) miles north of this location)

La Mesilla otter sighting

On January 5, 2011 Frances Wilmeth reported seeing 3 otters in the Rio Grande. This is the first sighting we've heard of from that area.(south of Espanola)

A flurry of reports from Taos

In November and December there were a few new otter reports from the Taos area, all in small tributaries of the Rio Pueblo de Taos.

Good time to look for otter tracks

Now that we have some snow, its a good time to get out and look for otter tracks.

We still have very little information on dispersal to the north/Colorado border and beyond.

I haven't been out looking myself but just wanted to remind everyone that we still need reports.

Thanks- Brian Bari

Gila News from Melissa

Good morning all,

Snowing in santa fe.

OK, I just talked to Jim, and he will send out a more detailed message
soon, but the message is

F&WS wants "several more months" to examine this issue.

They are worried about Gila chub and also Headwaters Chub, want the
Department to do some more monitoring of endangered fish to have a better
baseline of population numbers. They are concerned, of course, about the fish,
but also about getting sued on the fishs' account. They want more data on
potential otter behavior, like using streams of less than 10 cfs. Perhaps
radiotelemeter the animals, perhaps release only a few to start with. And so forth.

Since we are going to come up against the natal season in a couple of months,
we are probably not going to plan on releasing otters into the Gila for another year.

So sorry about all this.

Melissa