Justine Halifax investigates the return of the otter to our region’s waterways.

Otters have fought back from the brink of extinction across the West Midlands.

In the 1970s it was feared that the faint splash of an otter gently entering a river would have been a sound lost to the Midlands forever due to the toxic effect of pesticides.

But the iconic mammal is now making a comeback, according to a new report by the Environment Agency’s Lichfield-based technical specialist Andrew Crawford.

The survey showed there had been a tenfold increase in otter life over the last 30 years, with positive sightings rising from 5.8 per cent in 1977 to 1979 to 58.8 per cent in 2009/2010.

The increase is mostly down to efforts to clean up the region’s canals, rivers and water courses, which were once grossly polluted but have now seen fish return over the last 10 years.

Otters can now be found across the West Midlands, including in Birmingham, the Black Country and Staffordshire.

There is even evidence of the shy creature paying regular visits to Stafford town centre.

Wildlife trusts in the region have also been supporting the agency’s efforts to recolonise the otters.

Work carried out in Staffordshire has included diverting a stream from the River Trent across a flood plain to create more wetland and the creation of otter passes, including under the A5 at Cannock, in a bid to cut the number of otter deaths.

Mr Crawford says: “Otters are coming back across the region, which is great news.

“It’s interesting because in the mid-60s, the Trent River Board said the river was too poisonous for anything to grow other than sewage fungus.

“But now we have got otters just outside Birmingham on the River Tame, they’re certainly in Tamworth as there’s lots of otter dropping under bridges in the town, and there’s evidence of otters on the Trent by Lichfield and at the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas where the Trent and Tames meet.

“In Birmingham they are coming up the Tame almost as far as the Chester Road and we’ve found evidence of them in Minworth, on the Shropshire Union Canal through Wolverhampton, the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and they’re probably to be found in Stafford most nights.”

He added: “This is a natural increase, the otters have come back of their own accord, but it’s due to a number of reasons, including the cleaner waterways, but it’s taken a long, long time.

“But if present trends continue we expect otters to have made a full recovery within 20 years.

“As a top aquatic predator, otters are excellent indicators of good habitat and river quality. Their return to Midlands rivers shows how much we have achieved in improving water quality.

“Rivers in England are the healthiest for over 20 years but there is still more to do.

“We are working with farmers, businesses and water companies to continue to reduce pollution and improve water quality.”

Staffordshire Wildlife Expert Faye Burton, chairman of the Rural Policing Liaison Group, which gathers intelligence on criminals killing and maiming wildlife, says: “Yes otters are back and it’s fantastic to see as they’re part of the English Heritage.

“In the main it’s because the waterways are now cleaner, because people, like farmers, have stopped using chemicals on their land so it is no longer getting into the rivers.”

www.environment-agency.gov.uk.

Otter Fact File
* Otters are strictly protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and cannot be killed, kept or sold except under licence.

* The otter population collapsed in the 1960s following the introduction of persistent pesticides, although they were already declining through habitat loss, surviving in low numbers only in the Welsh Borders where high quality habitat remained. The chemicals involved are now banned and most have subsequently reduced in the environment. Consequently, otters are now re-colonising other areas from their strongholds, assisted by significant conservation action.

The fifth otter survey of England examined 3,327 river sites across the country between July 2009 and March 2010. It showed that:

* The number of sites with evidence of otter life has increased tenfold in 30 years, with positive site records increasing from 5.8 per cent in 1977-79 to 58.8 per cent in 2009-10.

* Since the last survey in 2002, positive site records have increased from 36 to 58 per cent.

* The pattern of recovery differs at a regional scale, with East Anglia and the River Thames and its tributaries showing the biggest increase in positive signs since 2000-02.

* Recovery has been slowest in the South-east. Otter recovery is spreading towards the South-east from traditional strongholds in the north and south west, and it is predicted that the population will spread to Kent within the next ten years.