Otter or Fisher?

Another animal mistaken for an otter is the fisher. It is about the same size but despite its name a fisher doesn't swim in the water. If you happen upon a fisher at the edge of a pond, it will run into the woods, not into the pond. One October morning I saw a fisher coming up from a wet meadow below a big beaver pond. The fisher looked at me and ran into the woods.

Then I went up to the beaver dam and saw a mother otter and her two pups fishing near it and running up on it. When they figured out I was there, they disappeared into the pond, probably swimming out to a beaver lodge along the shore. Fishers, by the way, can climb trees, something otters don't do, though I've seen them climb up on tree trunks angling out of the water, a few feet.

Finally, I'll offer the most important tip for identification. Of all the diving animals, including ducks like mergansers, otters make the most dynamic ripples in a pond when they are diving for fish. A number of otters can bring a pond surface to a boil with ripples.

So when you approach a pond and see the ripples from a dive or splash wait a few seconds. If you see another, and another, and they seem to move every few seconds, then get down and get the binoculars out and look for an animal coming head out with a fish in its mouth or waving a pointed tail high in the air when it dives, and hope you've been trapped by an otter. Enjoy the show.

by Bob Arnebeck