Volume 11 Pages 1 - 57 (April 1995)

Citation: Skarén, U. (1995) A Fox finds a Dead Otter. IUCN Otter Spec. Group Bull. 11: 14

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A Fox finds a Dead Otter

Uolevi Skarén

Tapsuntie 75, 74300 Sonkajärvi, Finland

In January 1995 I was told that a fox had killed an otter in Sonkajärvi, Finland. I skied to the place, which was an unfrozen rapid on the Matkusjoki River.

The man who found the otter told he skied every day by this place. Thus the meeting of the fox and otter was discovered at once. The fox had dragged the otter about ten meters and then partly buried it in the snow. However, I saw only old otter tracks (there had been light snow a couple of days earlier) while the fox tracks were quite fresh.

Gradually the cause of events became clear. The otter had died a few days earlier after climbing from the water. There was even an otter-formed hole in the icy snow, because the cooling body had melted the adjacent snow. Then light snow had partly covered the body. Therefore the man did not discover it, though daily skiing by the place at a distance of about 30 meters. Then came the fox. It had calmly walked to the otter, dragged it some meters and then for some reason abandoned it. The fox had left the place peacefully walking, but nevertheless it possibly had heard something alarming and therefore did not start eating the otter.

The otter was an exceptionally young one for this time of year in Finland. According to the structure of the skull it possibly had been born late summer 1994. It was a 2230 g male with 530 cm head and body, and 275 cm tail lengths.

In necropsy. it was at once clear that the animal had been sick. There were no signs of violence. Instead, most of the intestines and one third of the stomach were black. It seemed that the cause of death was an serious inflammation due to some microbe. The alimentary tract of the otter was empty and the subcutaneous fat scanty. The liver weighed only 65 g or 2,9% of the whole weight.

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