Lower Mainland residents are used to living side-by-side with wildlife, with black bears regularly seen in local parks, raccoons and skunks spotted running along side streets, and even coyotes prowling around after dark.
But some might be surprised to learn that river otters sometimes end up in urban green spaces, and not necessarily near any major bodies of water. One locally notorious example was the pest that made its way to the Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown, only to terrorize dozens of large koi, back in 2018.
What is unusual, however, is for a river otter to make its way to someone’s home and set up a den underneath it — but that is exactly what happened to some Richmond homeowners.
“They had been experiencing an otter on and around their property for a few days, noticed some digging around their shed, and then decided to give us a call to come take a look,” said Alex Ritz, franchise owner of the Coquitlam branch of Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control.
“We had someone come out, take a look, confirm that there was digging underneath.”
“They tapped on the shed to kind of see if there’s anybody inside. We heard movement; we confirmed that there was movement inside. So there’s some animal underneath.”
It was the scent that tipped them off as to what type of animal had made itself at home under the shed.
“Otters have a very distinctive smell. They were also able to notice that,” Ritz said.
“So we did know it was for sure otters based on the smell, the size of the digging.”
Three babies, so young their eyes weren’t even open yet, were located.
“Baby otters, they don’t open their eyes till about four to six weeks, so they’re entirely reliant on mom for the first few weeks of their life,” Ritz said.
“We started doing what we call exclusion work, which is the prevention, so we had to dig a trench around the shed and then install our screen. And as we were doing that, I was looking underneath the shed.”
There was no sign of the mother, and there were no sounds coming from the area.
“The babies were very quiet the whole time, so we didn’t know they were there for most of the time that we’re doing our work,” he said.
Ritz says he stuck his phone underneath to take pictures.
“We want to do a thorough baby search, because nobody wants to lock baby animals inside of a space like that,” he said.
“So I was able to see some nesting material, and then I pulled it out and found the three baby otters. Our next step was to put the baby otters in a heated box so that mom could come back and grab them and they’d stay comfortable.”
The mother did come back and spotted her offspring in the box, Ritz says, allowing her to retrieve them safely and naturally.
Once they were reunited, mother and babies moved on to find a new home somewhere else.
Meanwhile, the shed was reinforced with screening, so the otter family couldn’t return to their previous hiding spot.
Ritz says the babies were tiny.
“Probably about each one could fit in my palm, so they’re extremely small, very, very soft,” he said.
“Not the softest animal, actually. Skunks have been the softest animal I’ve ever touched so far, which is kind of surprising, but I think that baby fur is just super, super soft on any animal.”
The rescue society calls the operation a “rare first” for the team.
Just how rare?
“They typically would burrow on riverbanks or anywhere that’s close enough to water that they can have something to dig under for a safe, warm place for their babies,” he said.
“Usually, I think they’re a little bit more afraid of people. They don’t want to be too close.”
The experience was memorable for the team of rescuers, Ritz says.
“It was a very, very cute job.”