The otter is everywhere, the beaver is gaining ground

The Deux-Sèvres Otter and Beaver network, led by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) and the Agglo du Bocage bressuirais (Agglo 2B), met on Thursday, September 12, 2024 at the Maison familiale rurale in Saint-Loup-Lamairé to draw up its annual report on these two protected species. It was also an opportunity to present the reissue of its presentation booklet, which lists all the research and discoveries since 2007, the year this collective was founded, which now has around thirty partners.

While the European otter is present almost everywhere in Deux-Sèvres and benefits from increasingly numerous havens of peace, the beaver is gaining ground in the north of the department. “On the Thouet, it arrives at the gates of Secondigny, on the Argenton it is at Nueil-les-Aubiers and on the Sèvre Nantaise it is at Moncoutantlists as an example Tony Dahais, departmental network representative for the OFB. Our beavers originate from the releases of the 1970s around Blois. The first signs of their presence in Deux-Sèvres date back to 2001 in Saint-Martin-de-Sanxay.

The work of collecting and then popularizing the Loutre et Castor network is considered essential “before the watercourse restoration work”underlines Guillaume Koch, head of the Gemapi and natural spaces unit at Agglo 2B. Otter crossings are notably being created in the Marais Poitevin, and beaver ramps are being set up, as in Parthenay at the end of 2021. The objective: to avoid road collisions. “There are currently four otter carcasses in 2024”he adds.

The Otter and Beaver network intends to organize a new collective survey in 2025, targeting areas that are currently untouched and monitoring the beaver colonization fronts.