What do you carry when hunting in otter habitat?

[Wildabeest]

Whatever you use on a gemsbuck should do the trick. Pls post a pic of said gemsbuck, because some people may not have seen the 50 other times you posted it.

 

[Hunter4Life78]

I say we man up and just use spears!!! #spearskillotters #keeppoking

 

[Ben Lamb]

The Achilles heel of otters is they can't handle nuts pickled in craft beer.

Sig worthy. 5 nuts, er, stars.

 

[noharleyyet]

Burt Gummer

 

[rjthehunter]

I caught 2 last year in footholds on a crossover. A week before the season opened. It was a mess trying to let them go. But I did manage to get them released. I had to go grab a catch pole, because there was no way I was getting them out without getting tore up. Their long necks and short legs make them tough to deal with!

 

[timberman56]

How a River Otter Can Bag an Alligator for Lunch

Photos capture a river otter attacking a gator in a Florida river. The otter then feasted, witnesses say.

www.nationalgeographic.com

How a River Otter Can Bag an Alligator for Lunch​

Photos capture an amazing take-down.

BYJENNIFER S. HOLLANDFOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
PUBLISHED MARCH 8, 2014
• 6 MIN READ
We've barely recovered from the snake-eats-croc photos, and now this: Photos reveal a river otter in Florida attacking a young alligator, which it then ripped into for lunch.
The photos, shot in 2011 in Florida's Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge by a visitor named Geoff Walsh, were posted this week on the refuge's Facebook page. Our favorite reptile expert, Terry Phillip, had this initial reaction: "Man, that's a bold and hungry otter! Very cool."
We asked Phillip, of Reptile Gardens in South Dakota and Black Hills Pythons, to tell us more about how such a battle might go down.

PHOTOGRAPH BY GEOFF WALSH

A cute-faced mammal killing a powerful gator? Wildlife is full of surprises. How common might it be for a river otter to take on such an animal?
Otters are voracious predators, close to being apex [top predator] in most places where they live. So anywhere they overlap with gators this would be a pretty common occurrence. Still, this is impressive: That's not a small alligator, probably three or four years old and five feet [1.5 meters] long. If that's a male otter it might be 30 pounds. That's a very bold animal!

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PHOTOGRAPH BY GEOFF WALSH

How does the otter know to bite the gator behind the head?
It's actually a learned behavior. That otter has probably tried attacking smaller ones and got some bites to learn from. Remember that crocs swing their heads side to side when they fight, so the otter wants to be entirely out of the reptile's strike zone. Mounted on the gator's back with teeth into the neck, that's a smart strategy.
How does the otter actually kill the gator?
It doesn't, not directly. First, that's a pretty hard animal to bite through. The armor on the back is made to deflect bites from other alligators, so it's very tough. Where the otter wins is in energy: The otter has sustainable energy, whereas the gator is like a grenade, with explosive energy that doesn't last long. So the best tactic is to wear the gator out, which only takes a few minutes of thrashing and rolling around. Quite quickly it will be very tired, its muscles filled with lactic acid and no longer functioning. At that point it's almost like it's intoxicated, and the otter can then get it up on shore. The gator dies of lactic acid buildup, not from being eaten. It would take a long time to kill it that way.

PHOTOGRAPH BY GEOFF WALSH

So the otter eats its prey alive?
Yeah, once on shore it will rip off pieces of the hide—otters have very sharp teeth—to get to the guts and meat, the good stuff, inside. A lot of parts will end up scattered around. It's like a lion's kill as opposed to a snake's. If there's a mated pair or young otters, they'll get a piece of it, too. It's a good education for otter pups.
What other big animals might an otter eat?
Whatever they can catch and overpower. They are smart, agile, and strong predators. They do eat a lot of amphibians and fish, but they'll also take out sizeable beavers, raccoons, plus snapping turtles, snakes, and small gators. Of course, gators can also eat otters, so it goes both ways!

PHOTOGRAPH BY GEOFF WALSH


And what else might go for a gator?
When they're hatchlings, everything eats them. Large fish, snapping turtles, bird of prey. Bobcats and panthers and black bears can certainly eat young ones. (See video: jaguar attacks caiman.) But once the gators are good-sized, the only predator that will typically beat one is another gator. And, apparently, an otter if it's hungry enough!

 

[timberman56]

saw an adult teach 4 pups how to kill & eat a 15-20'' diameter turtle a few years ago. also watched an otter in a lake tease a lab until it went swimming after the otter. otter got him 50-75 yd from shore and swam him in circles until that dog just about drowned. when he got back to the bank he could hardly climb out

 

[Hammsolo]

Honestly if you put me in a situation where I had to either fight an otter or a griz I think I'd take my chances with the griz

What’s scarier, griz charging you in an open field or an otter attack while you’re swimming in a lake?

 

[seeth07]

What’s scarier, griz charging you in an open field or an otter attack while your swimming in a lake?

Again, I'll take my chances with the griz over the otter.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I used to not lock my doors at night. But this attack happened less than 50 miles from my house.

Grizzlies have taken my elk and chased me from my black bear hunting spot.
Wolves have eaten all the elk in NW Montana and forced me to change hunting regions.
A mountain lion attacked my chickens and now this.

Next thing you know it won’t be safe for my kids to swim in the pool they set up in the backyard.

Otters are out of control. I’m contacting my representative and demanding that FWP open up shoulder seasons for these vicious trout eaters. What is going to happen to Montana’s fishing and water recreation industry when all of the trout are gone and you can only inner tube the rivers at peril to your life?

Not only that but it was -44 degrees this past winter.

If moving to Montana has ever crossed your mind, save yourselves and your wife , kids, dogs, cats, hamsters and goldfish and move to California instead.

 

[Phaseolus]

What a bunch of pusses, in my 50 years of backcountry travel I’ve never felt the need to carry any form of otter defense.

 

[atlas]

I would never trust spray against an otter. 10 mm with a 30-round extended mag

 

[Dave N]

I would never trust spray against an otter. 10 mm with a 30-round extended mag

Full auto.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Did you guys ever read Bryan Jacques’ Redwall books? Loved those as a kid.

In those stories, Otters were some of the most fierce warriors out there. Here’s to Finnbarr Galedeep!

View attachment 286610

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Eulalia!!!!

 

[Mallardsx2]

 

[Nameless Range]

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Eulalia!!!!

 

[Sytes]

Some serious chit right there!

‘I thought I was going to die’: otters attack British man in Singapore park

Graham George Spencer says he was bitten 26 times in 10 seconds while out for a morning walk

www.theguardian.com

Death by Griz or by Otter? Damn embarrassing resting in Valhalla bragging 'bout how you lost your final battle to an otter! Always, ALWAYS carry a can of sardines, I tell ya!

 

[Moserkr]

FWP is advising not to leave your fish dangling in the water when recreating through otter territory, or they may attempt to snatch it.

 

[Gerald Martin]

FWP is advising not to leave your fish dangling in the water when recreating through otter territory, or they may attempt to snatch it.

Euphemism alluding to the dangers of skinny dipping?

 

[wolfpup]

If y’all remembered Zootopia, this should be no surprise.
View attachment 286646

I thought the same thing, but realize not everybody has younger kids like I do. Good flick though!