River Otter sighting on the Wadding River

[DeepWoodsExplorer]

I had an awesome River Otter sighting on 8/4/2024 on the Wadding River while Kayaking. As 3 of us were traveling downstream my daughter noticed an Otter on a high bank looking down to the river. It was racing along the edge heading downstream, I guess to get ahead of us. I paddled forward ahead of the Otter to get it to stop running and it did. My daughter was able to get a short video that came out awesome. I've been on the rivers for decades and never once saw an Otter. I would only see their scat or their "slides" for entering the water. It was dark black and small in size, seemed to be a yearling.
After it stopped and we passed, it headed back upstream and slide into the river to get to the other side.
It may not seem like much, but it was the highlight of our day.

 

[DeepWoodsExplorer]

 

[DeepWoodsExplorer]

I could not upload the video, So I snipped a shot of the Otter. The video was much better.

 

[bobpbx]

Mink are known to be dark black and smaller than otter. Just checking, as I can't see the photo.

 

[DeepWoodsExplorer]

Could be a Mink due to the size. It was hard to get close and moving fast. Either way, Still cool to see.

 

[Teegate]

Jessica and I saw what may have been an otter or mink crossing Jackson road on Sunday.

 

[Boyd]

I could not upload the video, So I snipped a shot of the Otter. The video was much better.

We don't have enough disk space to host video, so uploads aren't allowed. If you want to share, you can upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or a similar site, then just link to it here.

 

[RJG]

This past Saturday I had three otters swim right up to my kayak while I was fishing Lake Audrey in Mauricetown, NJ. Here is a screenshot of a 40 second video I shot.

They made this loud huffing noise every time they broke the surface of the water.