What Does It Mean To Fish With An Otter? (8 photos)

The otter is a multi-talented animal. You may know it as an excellent fisherman. You may know it as an adorable noisemaker, consisting of about 95% squeaks, creaks, squeals, and yelps. But you probably don't know otters as team players, capable of fishing with humans!





Lunch break at the fish farm looks something like this.

Once you see an otter, you'll remember it forever. It's hard not to notice this cute face with whiskers and a flexible, streamlined body with short clawed paws, a powerful tail and an extremely beautiful fur coat. But if you've only seen it on the screen, you might have a false idea of ​​its size. The otter is a large and extremely strong animal, up to 80 centimeters long and weighing 7-11 kilograms. In size, it is closer to a young lynx, and not to its relatives in the form of weasels and ermines.



How can you not feed such a cutie some fish?

River otters have spread widely across the Old World. They populated Eurasia from Spain to Vladivostok, settled widely in India and China, and also conquered the river systems of North Africa and the Middle East. Regardless of the region of their habitat, otters sleep and raise their offspring in deep, up to 2 meters long, burrows with nesting chambers at the ends. However, sometimes they populate beaver lodges, much to the displeasure of the owners. Usually, the predator does not touch them, but is ready to throw the entire beaver family out into the cold for one sidelong glance. And what will they do to the best river predator of Eurasia?





"Frozen snow is water," the otter tells us.

Unlike most predators, the otter chooses its prey by size, not by species. Any fish of comparable size is at risk. Otters are probably the only vertebrates that are natural enemies for adult large pikes. They ambush pikes, and then pull them out to the shore as quickly as possible, where the fish will not be able to put up a decent fight.



An otter pulls a pike onto the shore. Astrakhan Nature Reserve, 2021.

People appreciated the fishing skills of otters and decided to try to turn them into their own tame fishermen. And, unexpectedly, they succeeded. Moreover, in several regions at once and at different time intervals. We have preserved information about fishermen working in tandem with otters in Chinese records from the 7th century, as well as in British and Scandinavian chronicles of the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively. And in Bangladesh, they still fish like this to this day!



Fueling fishing gear.

To prepare worthy companions for themselves, Bangladeshi fishermen accustom baby otters to human scent and a special harness from childhood. Smart, curious and playful creatures easily get used to human company, especially if they were born in captivity. Then, at the age of two, the young otter is added to a pair of experienced otters. Watching them, the trainee learns to drive fish into special nets woven taking into account the peculiarities of fishing.



The otters get to the fishing spot in a spacious box. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to keep them on the boat!

Since the otters fish directly under water, it is not difficult for them to check every snag, every bush of aquatic vegetation and drive their inhabitants out of their shelters. In one go, such a team is capable of catching up to 12 kilograms of fish or up to 7 kilograms of shrimp.



A trio of otters splash and play in the water while fishermen clean their nets of trash.

However, otter fishing has some disadvantages. Firstly, it is better to fish at night, and the fishing time is very limited - no amount of training can correct the otter's biorhythms. Secondly, the furry assistants take part of the catch as wages!



Luckily for fishermen, otters can be paid with illiquid goods.