THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

16 November 1998 marks the fifth anniversary of the beginning of IOSF, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you, our members and supporters, for your continued help.

We started in November 1993 by saying that IOSF was a new concept in conservation as not only will we be conserving some of the world's most endearing and precious animals but also ensuring that the environment is safe for the otter and ourselves. So just what have we achieved in this time?

Our first Newsletter outlined what we hoped to achieve and by early 1994 we had set up special facilities to treat injured and orphaned otters on the Isle of Skye. To date we have taken in 39 otters from all over the UK and these have included orphans, road casualties and other injured otters. On average we receive 6- 8 per year and we have successfully released 92% of these back to the wild. We have also been able to help those working in the rescue of otters worldwide and advised on orphaned Eurasian otters in Portugal and a giant otter cub in Venezuela.

Our network of contacts working in otter research has grown tremendously to cover all 13 species of otter and we have advised on many programmes worldwide. We feel it is vitally important to have an efficient network of people who can be contacted for the best possible advice and information and with technology improving all the time it is no longer such a mammoth task to contact someone working for example with the Neotropical Otter in South America. You can read more about some of this research in the coming pages.

Along the way we have had help from may individuals and organisations - too numerous to list here, but a special thanks has to go to our Patron, Julian Pettifer, and our Presidents Laurence Broderick and Dennis Furnell. We have had continuous support from one of our long standing members Mr Ellice Macdonald CBE and from all of our hardworking co-ordinators. Special thanks must go to Care for the Wild who helped us in the beginning and to the Born Free Foundation whose support has been and continues to be of great encouragement to us. And thanks too to Wildaid and their volunteers for their hard work in building new otter pens for us.

In our very first Newsletter we said "By joining the International Otter Survival Fund you have ensured that otters will have someone to shout for them to ensure their survival." The first shouts have been made but as we go on with your help the noise will simply get louder!