Meet Cook County's Significant Otter

By Mae Rice in News on Jan 7, 2016 4:31PM

After a century of near-eradication from Cook County, otters—or at least, otter—have returned. Wildlife biologists with the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) captured a North American river otter in the county’s southwest corner.

Chris Anchor, a senior wildlife biologist with the FPCC, told the Tribune why it was such a landmark find:

Trail cameras, fecal studies and track studies have revealed evidence that otters live in this region today, Anchor said, but until they captured one using a modified foothold trap, one that doesn't cause any harm, they hadn't actually seen one.

"I started this job in 1981 and I never thought I'd be handling otters," Anchor said.

Local scientists are making the most of this lone otter. Veterinarians at the Brookfield Zoo surgically implanted a radio transmitter in the animal, via a tiny incision. Now biologists will now be able to track ihis movements, and potentially discover other “otter locations,” as Michael Adkesson, vice president of clinical medicine for the Chicago Zoological Society, put it to the Tribune.

The Brookfield Zoo chronicled the process in this video:

Adkesson also gave the Tribune his two cents on the otter’s significance:

It means the otter has been able to adjust to the amount of change that has taken place in Cook County over the past 200 years… It's amazing to stop and think about how much native wildlife is still present in the county, especially when we think about how urbanized it is.