After the proven presence of the European beaver on the banks of the Charentonne near Broglie last week by the Eure prefecture, it is a European otter which shows the tip of its snout in the valley of the Andelle, in Charleval. “By observing a camera trap installed in Charleval, a camouflaged capture device installed in a place where animals pass through, the experts formally identified a European otter on two videos dated October 24, when the species was supposed to be disappeared from the department”, indicates this Monday in a press release the Department of Eure.
Spotted in a sensitive natural area
The animal found refuge in the Charleval wetland, classified as a sensitive natural area. A discovery in the north of the department, even if an otter had been seen in the Risle basin in 2020. The latest census of the Norman Mammalogical Group, not exhaustive, reports the presence of a European otter in the Eure in 1932. How did she get there? A mystery but “it could be an individual having traveled a long distance from a known population basin, or perhaps a small nucleus of population which would have escaped scientific observations until now”, advances Bastien Thomas, semi-aquatic mammals mission manager at the GMN.
Of the in-depth genetic analyzes are planned on otter droppings (eprintes) to better understand the origin of this animal.
