Otters
In The Everglades
In my past stories you’ve heard me talk about the three different parts of The Florida Everglades: the river of grass, the cypress forest and the mangrove forest. I’ve also devoted a great deal of my time discussing the animals that live in the Everglades. For this month’s story I decided to tell you about the playful otters that I’ve seen in all of the parts of the Everglades.
On television you may see otters swimming and playing in the water. However, otters are not born knowing how to swim. Any animal that lives south of Lake Okeechobee (in the Everglades) has to learn how to swim. Otters are no exception. The mother otter initially has to coax her babies into the water. Once they realize they can swim, Mom can’t keep them out of the water. An otter’s fur is so thick that the water never touches their skin. They can hold their breath for about five minutes and swim about six miles an hour. Swimming under water at six miles an hour, an otter can cover about one quarter of a mile. They can also dive about sixty feet deep on a single breath.
A good friend of mine, Cindy works for Everglades Day Safaris 954-236-8835 or 1-800-472-3069. She tours the glades in a van from the eastern side of South Florida to the West on the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41). Cindy says she’s seen a lot of otters on a section called Turner River road. She’s shown me pictures of many otters that she’s encountered on her tours. In one picture an otter is eating a small turtle. Otters are meat eaters. Anything that is smaller than an otter and made out of meat could become a hapless meal for a hungry otter. I think Cindy enjoys watching the otters more than any other part of her tours.
Otters are usually social animals, living mostly in expanding family units. Cindy tells me that she frequently sees otter families of four to six. Otter families are very affectionate and you can observe them cuddling and showing lots of love for each other. Cindy says she also sees loners and pairs, however, When you see one otter by itself it is most likely an adolescent male that has not yet found a mate. Don’t worry, there are plenty of otters in the cypress forest.
I tour The Everglades on an airboat on a daily basis and finding otters in the open grass of the glades is not easy. As I idle slowly down the channels leading into the open grass, I sometimes spot an otter in the channel. I’ve also spotted otters out on the open grass parries, swimming in the slue ponds or playing in the high grass, by the time I tell the tourists to look at the otters or turn the boat around they are usually gone. They are so quick and elusive. This is because otters are very attuned to their surroundings. They not only hear something coming; they can feel it. Otters use their whiskers like sonar, to “feel” what’s going on around them even when they aren’t looking. They feel vibration in the air and in the water, so they know how far away and how big things are by the degree of vibration the object causes. This is how otters find things in dark murky water.
Besides their excellent sense of hearing, otters can see and smell as well as any other animal. Otters also are very vocal. They talk to each other using growls and high pitched screeching sounds. Some of the sounds they make are for fun but some are for letting other otters know when there is danger lurking nearby.
Recently, I wrote a story about a very special friend, John Jones and his Siberian lynx, Lenin. John, an animal trainer and owner of Wild Florida Productions, Inc. (786-242-1807) has many different animals, but he specializes in training otters. Currently, John has three otters: AJ (two years old) Barkley and Jobe (11 months old). They love John more than anything else in the world. John loves to bring them out in the wild and let them run free.
On one recent trip to the Cypress forest with a film crew, John brought his otters. As we entered the cypress forest, John spotted a family of four and over the next ten miles we had three more otter sightings. We were surprised to see so many wild otters in the same area. Deep in the cypress forest we stopped at a culvert pipe that ran under the road. Crystal clear water was gently moving through the pipe. It was the coldest day of the year, about forty degrees, and the water wasn’t much warmer. John let his otters out and they took off for the water. They couldn’t care less if the water was cold or not. John stepped into the water with his otters and they explored the river. The rest of the team got into the water with their camera equipment as the otters started playing, streaking by the cameras. The camera crew was amazed at how fast otters could swim. Looking around, John noticed that tourists were stopping to watch them play. The tourists were amazed to see the otters catching fish and playing with anything they could get their paws on. AJ, Barkley and Jobe love to go on road trips with John and they didn’t want to leave, but it was so cold for us humans that no one could take anymore. So, John called the otters back to the van and we headed for home.
If you want to see wild otters, you have a reasonable chance of seeing them along the side of any, out-of-the way road through the cypress forest.
On behalf of the Airboat Animals of Florida web site staff and myself: Thankyou all for checking out our award winning web site. REMEMBER, NATURE RULES!!! Glenn W. Wilsey Sr. GATORMAN
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