The animals hadn’t been known to live on the San Mateo Coast since the 1800s, when their numbers dwindled due to the fur trade
NEED TO KNOW
- North American river otters have been spotted at a ranch in the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in more than 100 years
- “Checking wildlife cameras can be like Christmas, but river otters haven’t been known to occur on the San Mateo Coast since the 1800s,” said researcher Ken Hickman
- River otters used to be much more widespread in California, but their numbers declined in the 19th century due to the fur trade
River otters have been spotted at a ranch in the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in more than a century.
According to an October news release from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen), a researcher got a surprise when he was reviewing a wildlife camera in the Cloverdale Ranch Open Space Preserve…