On the Trail of the Elusive Otter

Part of our reason for wanting to visit Skye was to do some otter watching. We spent a whole day with Grace & Paul from the International Otter Survival Fund & they showed us how to look out for signs of otter activity.

1. Frog Skins


Frogs are apparently a favourite snack for otters but they don't like the skins so discard them instead.

2. Footprints


We spotted these track marks near to what was probably an otter holt.

3. Spraint Mounts


Or, to you & me, otter poo. Otters use their droppings to mark their territories & they can recognise other individual otters in the area just by the smell of their spraint. You can spot a spraint mound by the patch of unusually vivid green grass around it (natural fertilizer, you see). Paul & I drew the line at sniffing the stuff but Grace got right down there amongst it & was able to tell how recently the otter had been there & what it had been eating.


Despite all these signs there wasn't even a sniff of an otter sighting that day. All was not lost though. We were able to spend the day listening to Paul & Grace's fascinating stories about otters while we looked at this amazing view. We were also able to use their tips to help us locate an otter later in the trip.