2025 Results Summary

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The 12th Spring Otter Survey took place over the weekend of 26th/27th April 2025 after taking a year off in 2024.

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It was great that so many volunteers signed up again with numbers only slightly down on 2023. In total there were 91 individual or teams of volunteers out over the weekend. The weather was a complete contrast to our last survey (which was probably the wettest ever), this year conditions were extremely dry with little or no rain across the region since the beginning of March. This created a different set of challenges as water levels were very low making spraint and tracks hard to find especially on rocky, exposed banks. 

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However, despite the difficulties 99 patches were covered containing 615 sites. There were three sightings of otters by surveyors over the weekend plus four trail camera captures.

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Of the 615 sites checked 266 (43%) were positive for otter signs – this is about average across surveys. A further 21 sites had possible, but inconclusive, signs. There were 335 sites (54%) that were totally negative. Again this is about average. There were 124 unsurveyed patches this year. The total number of adjudicated active otter territories this year was 35 which is down on 2023 but back to the level recorded in 2022.

 

The full survey report can be accessed via the link below.

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