A photo posted on Facebook by the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust showed what appears to be a river otter.
San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust
A river otter was apparently spotted in the San Joaquin River in northern Fresno County, stewards of the waterway said on Friday.
Officials were quick to say they could not be certain the partially submerged animal spotted swimming in a river channel was an otter, and they were waiting on a confirmation from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, but the furry swimmer appeared to be an otter rather than a beaver, rat or other animal.
The video was likely near Sycamore Island in an old gravel pond now filled with water, according to Sharon Weaver, the executive director of the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust.
“They’re an apex aquatic predator. So if you have a river otter in the system, that indicates that the whole system is pretty healthy,” she said. “Otherwise, the ecosystem doesn’t support that kind of predator, because it means you’ve got to have the whole food chain that’s functioning, and that you’ve got plenty of food sources for those predators.”
Otters are not commonly seen in the area, she said. They are native to the region.
“I would say for 20 years I never heard about anybody seeing river otters in the San Joaquin River, even though theoretically they could be here, she said. “But now, all of a sudden in the last year we’ve had sighting after sighting after sighting of people that believe they’re seeing river otters.”
Adult river otters are about 10 to 33 pounds and 2.5 to 5 feet long, according to state Fish and Wildlife. Males tend to be larger than females.
They live in riparian regions — areas near the banks of water — often in the same spots as beavers, the department says. Otters eat fish, frogs, crayfish, turtles, insects and other aquatic animals, but also some small mammals.
A photo posted on Facebook by the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust showed what appears to be a rare sighting of an river otter. San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust
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Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.