Otters – West Central MN

This past weekend we were sitting overlooking the lake and saw a fairly large mammal swimming between our docks. It was swimming with it’s head above water and dove several times. It appeared to be roughly 4′ long and had a slender body.

It was definitely not a muskrat or mink as it was much bigger.
It was not a beaver as it was longer and more slender, and I didn’t see a beaver tail when it dove.

I’ve never seen an otter in our lake, but I have read that they’re making a comeback. Is there anything else it could be that I’m not thinking of?

Probably an otter. They are all over by us. Just Google mn otters

Hose cat?….

Sounds like an otter to me.
DT

Bearcat89 wrote:

Just Google mn otters

Yeah, I have seen them in rivers, but never in this lake. Just wanted to be sure I wasn’t overlooking something obvious. Pretty darn cool–our daughter loves otters.

deertracker wrote:

Hose cat?…

Interesting. Definitely could be one of those elusive hose cats.

Never seen them until a few years ago now they live in the lake by my dads and i hate them. Find piles of bullhead skulls and every time i put my minnow trap out they destroy it. What fatheads are left are tiny compared to what they were. Sibley Co.
.

My guess is a otter. There seems to be a fair amount of them showing up in Central Minnesota and other places as well. They are way cool creatures. Fun to watch. They always seem to be having fun and loving life !!!

Head up sounds like otter to me. We have them by and at our cabin. Used to like them until I saw their aggressive side several times. Now we run them off if we see them in front of our place. I dont want them to hurt my dogs which would surely jump in the water after them and we plain just dont want them near us anymore.

Could be a fisher, we have them by the cabin and they are slightly larger than an otter.

BigWerm wrote:

Could be a fisher, we have them by the cabin and they are slightly larger than an otter.

That came up, but do they swim? Also, we’re talking about the New London area. It seems to me that a fisher would be an uncommon sight in that area.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

That came up, but do they swim?

They CAN swim, but yeah not known for it despite the name, they keep to the woods mostly. And they are fairly new to the Nevis area, we’ve seen them a couple times the last 3-4 years, but never before in the 10 years prior we’ve been going up there.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
Could be a fisher, we have them by the cabin and they are slightly larger than an otter.

That came up, but do they swim? Also, we’re talking about the New London area. It seems to me that a fisher would be an uncommon sight in that area.

Fisher’s will get in the water, but I don’t think it would swim like described. but that is a possibility.

fishthumper wrote:

Fisher’s will get in the water, but I don’t think it would swim like described.

This was definitely a mammal that was comfortable in the water.

I would bet otter. They are a fish eating machine. Will clean out a small pond in no time.

Loch Ness?

Yup, noticing them more and more in our lake (about 60 minutes NE of New London Area). Fun to watch, but they’re not necessarily shy and can get aggressive. I think a lot of the “Muskie” or “Pike” attacks you hear about every so often can be attributed to Otters.

Several years ago (pre cellphone camera unfortunately) I was up in a tree deer hunting next to a river (Ottertail River ironically). There was snow on the ground and the river had shelf ice that extended out 10′ or so then was open in the middle. While I’m sitting there this otter gets out of the water, climbs up the bank, then proceeds to slide down the bank on his belly, across the ice and into the water. As I’m watching he climbs out and repeats it, probably 10 times. Pretty cool to see.

Bass-n-Eyes wrote:

Several years ago (pre cellphone camera unfortunately) I was up in a tree deer hunting next to a river (Ottertail River ironically). There was snow on the ground and the river had shelf ice that extended out 10′ or so then was open in the middle. While I’m sitting there this otter gets out of the water, climbs up the bank, then proceeds to slide down the bank on his belly, across the ice and into the water. As I’m watching he climbs out and repeats it, probably 10 times. Pretty cool to see.

and then you didn’t see that 10 pt buck that walked by you!!

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Yup, noticing them more and more in our lake (about 60 minutes NE of New London Area). Fun to watch, but they’re not necessarily shy and can get aggressive. I think a lot of the “Muskie” or “Pike” attacks you hear about every so often can be attributed to Otters.

A couple years ago there was a musky attack in the papers that happened at Island Lake in Duluth.
I laughed when they showed the pictures of the bite because whatever bit that girl had large k9 teeth and the news claimed it was a fish. To me it was obviously an otter that bit her.
They are cool creatures though and I think aggressive behavior and attacks on people are very rare considering how often we share the same spaces.

Saw a mother otter with two pups? on a WMA a mile from Luverne early last September. Don’t see that every day down here and was very cool. Had my lab with me and we made sure to keep our distance.

Sounds like an Otter, I saw a pair in a retention pond in the middle of Rochester this spring so they seem to be expanding. Interestingly my parents had a fisher on their property this fall in the New London area, also seem to be expanding.

In-laws had a pond absolutely decimated by them. Otters will gorge themselves on panfish.

I got an email response from the New London area wildlife supervisor saying that there is a good population of otters in Kandiyohi county and that he normally registers around 3 dozen each trapping season.

I’ll have to keep an eye out for them.

I’ve heard the northern Chupacabra love the water too, so there’s that.

Early season grouse hunting in St. Louis County when it is hot and buggy, we go to the Whiteface River to rinse off and frequently see otters swimming near us. Fun animals, leave them alone and they don’t bother us.

I regularly trap otters, see otters, and find otter sign right in the metro. They are more common than folks think.