Sign of Otters?

[jack1432]

Hi all,

 

Yesterday I was fishing a stretch of the river Blythe in Birmingham and a young fox came trotting towards me and as it was about 20 yards from me I realised it properly hadn't seen me as I was in the undergrowth, so I stood up so it could see me, as I did so it ran of and dropped something in the tree line which was just out of view so I couldn't see what it had dropped. I thought it was a rabbit as there are a lot of them around that area.

 

Anyway as I was packing up I went and had a look and it was a chub! The head was eaten and only the ribs remained, the tail and the anal fin were left and hadn't been touched.

 

Am I right in thinking that otters only eat the head of fish and leave the tail end. I've haven't heard of otters in Brum before.

I can't imagine a fox jumping in the river to pick up a dead fish, or do they.

 

Is this sign of otters?

Thanks , Jack.

Edited July 16, 2013 by jack1432

[Kappa]

I would say almost any scavenging animal will pull dead fish from the margins given the chance. Many dead fish will end up there afterall!

 

These days the fish are thought to have been killed by otters due to politics. I think in most cases the fish died for another reason and a fox / mink / rat / cat etc etc took care of the rest.

 

Rich

Edited July 16, 2013 by Kappa

[Phone]

Jack14,

 

Could you estimate how long the fish had been dead? I'm with Kappa. We restocked some streams in SE Missouri with otter and all of a sudden no other predator or scavenger existed in the state. EVERYTHING was (allegedly) being killed by otter - even rabbits.

 

If this sounds confusing I guess you should know we harvest otter.

From the Missouri Department of Natural Resources:

Otters and Muskrats (Trapping)

Primary Season: Fri, 11/15/2013 - Thu, 02/20/2014
Daily Limit: Any number
Possession Limit: Any number

 

Phone

[jack1432]

Phone,

 

It's hard to say how long it had been dead as the head was gone, only ribs left, but judging from the anal fin area not long as it was in-tacked.

There are also buzzards in the area so maybe a buzzard had picked it up and then the fox saw it of?

[kirisute]

fox will happily take fish from the water; basking fish in shallow water will be taken; as well as dead fish that are close to the bank.

interestingly enough foxes also love strawberries!! find a strawberry field and scan it at night and youll see the buggers stuffing their faces with em!! but that's an aside....

otter sign is fairly easy to read:

they will usually have 1 or 2 "slides" onto a waterway; which will be a well worn track down to the waters edge. they also usually return the same area again and again to eat; if you can find scat then it does smell a little of lavender if you care to give it a try! LOL

the issue on a river is that they will travel a significant way to hunt and finding slides or eating platforms can involve a long stretch of waterway

otters will eat most of a fish given the chance...they start with the "finer" bits..the choice cuts if you will....but they will eventually devour the lot if left un-disturbed; mink are far more likely to kill and leave after only taking a small portion of the kill.

 

without conclusive proof don't assume otters; there are any number of possibilities for the carcass or the kill.

[OTIB]

Sounds like a Otter kill or Mink, Otter just eat the more nutritious vital organs and leave the rest. Fox will clean up the rest, the thought that Fox will catch fish iintruiging but probably not realistic.

[jack1432]

Thanks kirisute,

 

I just thought it was bit odd that the fox would not have eaten all of the chub in one sitting.

[philocalist]

Thanks kirisute,

 

I just thought it was bit odd that the fox would not have eaten all of the chub in one sitting.

 

Could have been on the way back to cubs?

[jack1432]

 

Could have been on the way back to cubs?

I thought about that later that day, but I thought the fox might have been a cub just leaving the family because it seemed smaller than the ones around my road and garden, it was also quite "fluffy". Will the cubs have left the family by now?

[kirisute]

foxes are winter mating;

they have a really short season of about 3 days. pregnancy lasts round about 53-56 days: cubs will be following parents about by the 12 week stage and by 6 months will be virtually indistinguishable from an adult fox. dispersal seasons for fox are autumn and winter; so mum wont be forcing anyone out of the home territory for a couple of months yet.

so yes its more than feasible that you saw a young fox scavenging or getting lucky with a spot of fishing. by this time of year they will be capable of hunting on their own but will still be largely within a fairly small territorial area for a few more weeks as of yet.

classic fox scavenging season is march/april where dogs are out looking for easy prey to feed young cubs.

Edited July 17, 2013 by kirisute