Otters are so friendly!!

[BilletHead]

4 minutes ago, tjm said:

I guess I'm lucky that I never got attacked when sharing a mill pond with a group of otters and two pairs of swans, my rowed jon boat couldn't have raced either of them, and at the time I didn't have any idea how dangerous they were.

          I suppose I am too. They are very inquisitive. I had three young one's swim right up to me on a pond and just look at me. Heads way up above water.  We had a stare down for several minutes. Finally, they turned around and went back top fishing. Catching small green sunfish or bluegill. I was not close enough to id the fish but close enough to hear them crunching the fish. ten yards or so. They did the stare down at five yards. 

[fishinwrench]

I'm surprised to hear all this.  Every otter I've ever seen has appeared to be very docile, and even curious like they wished I would pet them.   I guess I'm glad that I never attempted to 😳 

I'll tell ya what critters have begun to kinda freak me out.....are these semi-tame Canadian geese around here.   I swatted at one with a landing net because it wouldn't back-off and leave us alone, and 3 of his cohorts took offense and got downright violent.  I thought I was gonna have to go "full Dion Hibdon" on those assholes and start heel stompin' and wringing necks.   

[Mitch f]

When I’m fishing and have a firearm…

my motto is : if it’s brown , it’s down

[Al Agnew]

The guy that was MDC's "otter ambassador", back when MDC was just considering reintroducing otters, traveled around the state with several "tame" otters giving programs.  The otters, of course, were the stars of the show.  I knew him well, and talked to him about the otters.  I may have mentioned how cool animals they were and they seemed very friendly and acclimated to humans.  He just shook his head, and rolled up his sleeves.  His forearms were a mass of scars.  He said he really didn't enjoy handling the otters, because they could be "real s.o.b.'s", docile one moment and vicious the next.

[jdmidwest]

I had a group surround me in the kayak while duck hunting flooded timber on Wappappello one fall.  I was in 10' of water and they kept popping up all around me.  If they had jumped in boat, I would have been in trouble.  They probably weighed 30lbs each.  One caught a big carp and dragged it on a floating log, the rest moved over to it. 

[Mitch f]

9 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

The guy that was MDC's "otter ambassador", back when MDC was just considering reintroducing otters, traveled around the state with several "tame" otters giving programs.  The otters, of course, were the stars of the show.  I knew him well, and talked to him about the otters.  I may have mentioned how cool animals they were and they seemed very friendly and acclimated to humans.  He just shook his head, and rolled up his sleeves.  His forearms were a mass of scars.  He said he really didn't enjoy handling the otters, because they could be "real s.o.b.'s", docile one moment and vicious the next.

I spoke with a trapper once at an MSA meeting. He said they are extremely mean. I remember you once made a great comment that got me thinking. You said that the reason that the otter reintroduction had a flaw is because they forgot to consider farm ponds (which basically weren’t there when the otters originally roamed the Midwest). The newly created farm ponds craze basically became an “all you can eat buffet” for the otters. I also feel the reintroduction of otters failed to realize how fast these little boogers can proliferate. The population soared way beyond expectations and we finally found a way to keep them under control with trapping. 

[MOPanfisher]

12 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

Honey badgers come with 30 round mags.

I like that Honey Badger!

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

 The population soared way beyond expectations and we finally found a way to keep them under control with trapping. 

                Sort of Mitch,

     At first when season was opened otters were high dollar for trappers and there was actually a limit. Then no limit as the price went down. Now they are really not worth Diddley Squat. Most now are bought by taxidermists for mounting and resale. Feds still require getting Otter tagged when you get one. I think there are landowners with ponds and lakes who will pay trappers to trap them, Beavers and muskrats for damage control. Cattle farmers especially out west pay a bounty to trappers and hunters to work on the bigger Western coyote.  

   Crazy. Man was given dominion over animals for food, clothing etc. Bunny huggers and anti-hunting, fishing anti-fur and others are the reason fur has no value. I am not about the wiping out of any native fish, fowl or mammal. We just need a balance like intended. Just my opinion take it with a grain of salt. 

[tjm]

Petroleum, petrochemical fibers and the low cost and low maintenance of plastic clothing are the primary reasons there is no fur market. I've been to trapping conventions where 98% of the trappers were dressed head to toe in synthetic fiber and blaming lack of fur market on the anti crowds. Truth is everyone that wears synthetic fiber is anti-fur and anti-agriculture. We don't have the hundreds of thousands    of sheep that we had in the '50s because we don't wear wool, we don't have the hundreds of shoe factories that we had in the '60s because we don't insist on leather shoes. The Antis are bad and they will eventually ban sport fishing over catch and release, and they will eventually ban all but subsistence hunting, but it will be because we the anglers, trappers and hunters voted for their candidates and watched their movies. Quick question, how many of us wear felt hats daily? One of the biggest users of fur when I was a child and was going back for centuries. How many have leather house slippers? and all shoes are leather? All rhetorical questions, don't bother to answer.

PETA for example only has about 9 million members and supporters in over 8 billion people, they simply can't be that big an influence, but everyone that wears a polyester shirt or nylon ball cap is a contributor to their mindset and agenda.

[Flysmallie]

5 hours ago, tjm said:

 

PETA for example only has about 9 million members and supporters in over 8 billion people, they simply can't be that big an influence, but everyone that wears a polyester shirt or nylon ball cap is a contributor to their mindset and agenda.

I think you need to lay off the shrooms. PETA has nothing to do with it. People wear what people wear because it’s trendy. When fur came out of trend it went away. It did trend out because of people basically canceling it. I mean if they get that upset over a can of beer they can end anything.