The Otter

Back from the brink of extinction, the otter is making a come-back in Britain today. Author James Williams, a life-long enthusiast of this fascinating, enigmatic creature, dispells some of the mysteries in this beautifully-illustrated book:

• Reasons for the near-disappearance of the otter in the 1980s and the reasons for its recovery today
• Why otters patrol their territories and fight for them
• Breeding, natural history and behaviour
• Unusual otter information: blind otters, the work of otter groups, the difficulties of introducing otters in the wild, their surprising ability to live close to man
• Otters as predators – their impact on fish stocks, the difficulty of fish-hunting in cold water, their favourite foods
• Tracking otters through their prints, and through their spraints
• Helping the otter to survive in the 21st century

Availability:

Illustrations:
137 Colour photographs

Pages:
224

Published:
Sep 02, 2010

ISBN:
9781906122225

About the Author:

James Williams spent a lifetime otter watching, from his boyhood in the Lake District, to his adult life in Somerset. He taught English in Taunton, but his west-country residence gave him the opportunity to study and record the changing fortunes of this elusive and fascinating mammal, from its near-extinction in the mid-1980s to its remarkable, though precarious, recovery today.

Actively involved in many initiatives to monitor and aid the otter's restoration, he was Chairman of the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Otter Group, and James continued to train and inspire a new generation of otter-enthusiasts through his popular training days and his role in various surveys, right up until his death in February 2014.