INTERNATIONAL OTTER SURVIVAL FUN

INTERNATIONAL OTTER SURVIVAL FUND

(ESTABLISHED NOVEMBER 1993)

otter

ANNUAL REPORT 2006/2007

MISSION STATEMENT

The International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) was inspired by observing otters in their true natural environment.　 Because the otter lives on land and in the water and is at the peak of the food chain it is an ambassador species to a first class environment.　 IOSF was set up to protect and help the 13 species of otter worldwide through a combination of compassion and science.　 It supports projects to protect otters, which will also ensure that we have a healthy environment for all species, including our own.　

Again 2006/2007 has been an extremely successful year for IOSF, both in our local work, especially the otter hospital and with international projects.

united kingdom

Research

Shetland: IOSF has been working with Jim Conroy on a long term study of the Shetland otters for the past three years, although the study has been going on since the 1980s. With data going back so far it is a valuable source of information on population dynamics. Unfortunately there seems to have been a drop in numbers. As yet the reason for this is unknown, although it is possibly prey-related, but further investigations will continue.

Road Mitigation: IOSF was asked to lead a conference on road mitigation being organised by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust. This presented a good opportunity to review the various methods of road mitigation and to disseminate the information amongst highways and conservation practitioners – highway engineers, Local Authority ecologists and wildlife officers.

Biological Recording:

biological recording

IOSF continues to act as a biological recording centre and as Secretariat to the Highland Biological Recording Group. Records are not only taken for otters, but for all taxa and passed on to the relevant recording organisation.

Island Surveys: The island of North Uist was visited as part of the programme of otter surveying in the Hebrides. This is a difficult island to survey as there is so much water – indeed the island is known as "the island full of lochs and the lochs full of islands". 　Certain areas of coastline proved to be excellent for otters but others were very poor. Consequently this survey threw up as many questions as it answered.

Otter Post Mortems: IOSF has been concerned about the lack of post mortems being carried out on Scottish otters and in January 2007 we met with Dr Adrian Philbey from Glasgow Vet School. He is keen to do the work and IOSF is actively seeking funding and is in negotiations with the Scottish Executive for this.

Campaigns

Snares:

snares

The campaign to ban snares continues and IOSF is working closely with various other conservation/animal welfare organisations on this. A Prime Minister’s e-petition was set up with a closing date of 21 November 2007. Furthermore the Scottish Executive published a Consultation Document seeking views on whether they should be banned or not. This had a closing date of 28 February 2007. The results of the consultation showed that there is a majority of 2:1 in favour of a complete ban and we await action to bring this into force.

Local Campaigns: IOSF has also been supporting local campaigns to protect otters in the River Lune in Cumbria which were threatened by a proposed housing development. This was eventually turned down in October 2007 – a positive step to show that local councils can uphold conservation legislation.

Education

Children’s Pack: In 2007 IOSF published our long-awaited Children’s Education Pack with the support of the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation.　 The text is supported by brilliant art work by Lyn Wells and it has been well received by schools and other environmental groups. Copies have also been provided to people working in Kenya, Ireland, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Broadford Wildlife Club: The wildlife club for local primary school children continues its work – it is strange now that children of some of the original club members attend!

Ullapool Schools Environment Day: We also participated in an environment day for schools held in Ullapool in June.

Courses: Various courses have been run including training in the recognition of otter secondary signs and surveying.

Speakers: As usual IOSF has provided speakers for the Aberdeen University Extra Mural Department programme throughout the Highlands and also for natural history groups further afield.

Rescue and Rehabilitation

Otters: Nine otters were taken into the sanctuary during this year and two from the previous year were released (Lelly and Tweed). Sniffer and Eliza came from Cumbria, but unfortunately Sniffer died. Eliza was released in October 2007. A juvenile with bite wounds to head was found at the Gaelic College, Sabhal Mhor Ostaig, and she was later released back to the wild. The remaining five otters remain in care (Maverick, Jeannie, Catkin, Ceud and Rowan).

Other Casualties: Other casualties treated in the hospital include the usual autumn arrival of Manx Shearwaters, a Great Skua (Bonxie), hedgehogs, heron, seabirds, and baby birds.

INTERNATIONAL　

IUCN

IOSF has been asked to act as Secretariat to the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Otter Specialist Group. Jim Conroy is the Chairman.

Research　

The Netherlands: IOSF was asked to attend a conference in the Netherlands on road mitigation and to present on the use of wildlife warning reflectors. As otters are just in the process of being re-introduced to this country any losses to the roads are disastrous.

Ireland:

ispca

In early 2006, Paul was asked to go to Ireland to advise on the construction of a new otter pen at the Irish SPCA headquarters in County Longford and in April 2007 Paul was honoured to open the new facilities. The Centre now has a 2 acre site with a small lake and shallower wetland area which can be used to rehabilitate Irish otters. This will be ideal for cubs which have reached the stage where they can go outside but as yet indoor facilities for young cubs have not been developed.

Nepal: In March 2007 Dr Padma de Silva held a workshop on "Survey techniques and monitoring otter populations" for rangers and conservationists in Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal. The workshop was partially funded by IOSF and we had hoped to send a representative but with political unrest prevalent at the time the Foreign Office advised against westerners travelling there.

Mexico: A project was carried out in the three rivers of Temascaltepec to see which habitat features influence the distribution of the Neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis).

Italy: IOSF has been supporting a campaign by local people in Serre Persano, southern Italy, to prevent the re-opening of a huge rubbish dump near the Oasi di Persano. This area is protected and otters are known to use the Sele river. Following the action of the local people the government transferred the location to another site well away from the protected site.

Chile: IOSF has funded Dr Claudio Delgado’s work on the Sea Cat (Marine Otter, Lontra felina) before and this year he carried out further studies to develop a method for estimating population numbers. He also undertook a public awareness campaign particularly for fishing communities and will be publishing the first Sea Cat conservation strategy at regional level.

Spain: We are still working on a publication with scientists from throughout Europe to produce an accurate means of estimating otter and mink populations. This is being done in collaboration with the Biologica Department of the Catalonian government.

Bangladesh: In addition to our own rehabilitation work on Skye, we regularly help with advice and funding for people working in this field abroad. This year we have been helping Dr Feeroz who set up the Wildlife Rescue Centre in Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. They take otters confiscated from fishermen and also teach people about otters and try to stop the poaching.

Fur Campaign:

otter furs

During this current year, IOSF first became aware of the huge trade in otter furs. We had been aware of a certain degree of poaching but had not realised the true scale of the problem. For example, 1833 skins were found for sale in Linxia, China, and 305 otter skin chupas in the Bharkor area of old Lhasa, Tibet (the chupa is the traditional Tibetan dress which is trimmed with otter fur). As a result a report was written for CITES and IOSF is investigating further.

thanks

As ever, we are extremely grateful to all the countless supporters who have donated towards our work.　 Some people have raised funds through car boot sales, fayres, sponsored walks, recycling ink cartridges, donating instead of Christmas presents, etc. Each donation, no matter how small, is invaluable and without this help we could not achieve all the vital projects summarised above.　

In particular we are grateful to the following for their grant assistance:　

The H.B Allen Charitable Trust, The Animal Defence Trust, Jean Barnard, A. S. Butler Charitable Trust, Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust, The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation, The Langdale Trust, The Mackintosh Foundation, The Miller Foundation, The Bill & Margaret Nicol Charitable Trust, The Shirley Pugh Foundation, Radley Trust, Robertson Trust, Peter Storrs Trust, Walker 597 Animal Trust, HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust.