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Wildlife experts have expressed their delight after trail cameras installed in 2023 finally recorded footage of an animal that has been dwindling in numbers. The project was launched by Morell River Management Cooperative (MRMC) to track wildlife movements on Prince Edward Island off Canada's coastline, and is now delivering results.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), 40 camera traps deployed by the Forests, Fish, and Wildlife Division have offered crucial insights into the island's ecosystem in the Gulf of St Lawrence. These motion-activated cameras operate throughout the year, allowing staff to identify patterns including population decreases and recoveries of different species. One particular species to emerge has thrilled the MRMC - the river otter.

Publishing photographs of the increasingly uncommon creature on Facebook, they stated: "In 2023, MRMC installed two trail cameras along the Morell River as part of a River Otter monitoring project with the PEI Watershed Alliance and Forests, Fish and Wildlife PEI. We haven't captured any otters on camera, but we have seen lots of other PEI wildlife!"

Meanwhile, Hannah Murnaghan, the otter monitoring project's coordinator, told CBC: "It was very exciting. We wish it was a little closer to the camera, but we're holding out hope that we'll eventually capture one if they are in the watershed."

She added: "Having the cameras out just gives us a better understanding of what different species are using the riparian area, so that we can strategically plan our projects around that."

The International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) has reported that river otters, once common throughout America and Canada, have vanished from most of mid-America due to hunting, habitat loss, and pollution. The charity said: "As of 2020, the North American River Otter is trapped for their fur across 52 states/provinces in the US and Canada. Many thousands of otters are killed each year for fur and, after their severe decline, otter populations were restored into 21 American states and one Canadian province.

"However, in many of these they can now legally be trapped again. In terms of sustainability, the numbers given by government departments for trapped otters do not take into account animals which have not been registered, or those which are caught incidentally when trapping for beavers."

Reacting to the MRMC's footage, one Facebook user said: "Wow, these cameras caught so much amazing footage!" Another commented: "Wow, amazing project."

A third person remarked: "That is something."

The IOSF also notes that there are recordings of such otters in Northern Mexico. "Besides obviously being found in rivers, the North American River Otter can also be found in lakes, coastal marshes and even rocky sea coasts," it adds.

"They are active in both the day and night, and are largely fish eaters relying on a wide variety of species such as Kokanee and Mountain Whitefish, but they will also occasionally take amphibians, reptiles and rodents."