Year 7 learn all about otters from Oxford-based Naturalist Bob Cowley

Last Wednesday, Bob Cowley came to talk to Year 7 about the burgeoning otter population in Oxford and the surrounding countryside.

Bob Cowley is an Oxford-based naturalist, Vice Chair of the Oxfordshire Mammal Group and one of Europe's leading wildlife trackers.

He explained to the year 7s how otters nearly became extinct in the 1960s as a result of new pesticides which were running off farms and into the waterways, poisoning otters by contaminating the river animals they eat (shellfish, fish and frogs). However with legislation banning the most harmful pesticides alongside the end of otter hunting has allowed otters to thrive once again. Bob explained how footprints and their curiously jasmine scented 'spraint' (poo)  have allowed trackers to establish that they are in abundance, including along the Cherwell and Thames within Oxford. It was interesting to learn that a large part of their diet is the American signal crayfish, meaning they may be helping to control the numbers of these crustaceans which are undermining canal and riverbanks and driving native white-clawed crayfish to extinction.

If you want to know more about mammals in Oxfordshire then www.oxonmammals.org has a wealth of information about local species and related events and projects.

Phoebe Mortimer

Otter sketches by pupil