Team Otter: Returning otters to Japan

[DesertRhino150]

There were until a few years ago, only a few elderly Eurasian otters were found in Japanese Zoos. Also, in 2012 the endemic subspecies of Eurasian otter of Japan, the Japanese otter, was officially declared to be extinct.

A new programme to bring Eurasian otters from European to Japanese zoos has been recently started, with a pair of new otters arriving at Aquamarine Fukushima from Hellabrunn Zoo (Munich) and Alpenzoo Innsbruck (Austria) and Toyama Municipal Family Park also receiving three otters (1:2) from Alpenzoo, with plans for second male otter to join the trio from Centre Loutre in France.

Already the project has a good start, with 3 healthy cubs born at Fukushima in June 2012. It is aimed to get a healthy population of Eurasian otters in Japanese zoos before considering the reintroduction of otters to the wild in Japan.

It sounds like a worthwhile project and I wish them all the best.

"TEAM OTTER" Europe?Japann ? a co-operation between zoos in Europe and Japan

 

[DavidBrown]

River otters have been reintroduced to many parts of North America where they were extirpated due to the fur trade. I gather that the same is true in Europe?

Hopefully wild otters will be found again in the rivers of Japan at some point if this project works out.

 

[vogelcommando]

Eurasain Otters weere re-introduced at least in the Netherlands quite succesfull but I don't know if the difference between Eurasain otter subspecies and the Jananese otter are small enough to introduce it to Japan ?

 

[gentle lemur]

There were some reintroductions of captive bred otters in England twenty plus years ago, for example by the Otter Trust. The animals were mostly descended from Scottish otters, as the wild population in the Highlands and Islands was probably at the highest density in Europe. The population has increased naturally in subsequent years, assisted by a ban on hunting and environmental improvements.
According to Harris, A Study of Recent Lutrinae, 1968, most authors could find no significant differences between Japanese otters (named as subspecies whiteleyi) and European otters - although DNA studies might reveal differences.

Alan