The otter population on Deeside has always been healthy even when there was much outcry about many rivers in the UK being devoid of otters. In fact Deeside can very much be regarded as an otter stronghold. Not an easy animal to see, being mainly, but not exclusively nocturnal, and wary of humans.

They can be seen however if you choose your spot. A walk along the banks of the Dee, or the Culter ( leuchar ) burn in early morning, or evening before dusk, can result in a sighting.

I have stood quietly on bridges on both to watch otters swimming past diving for eels.

You often hear them before you see them, listen for an often repeated high-pitched squeak.

The fishery always has a resident female all year round, joined occasionally by a roving male. The resident females have had many litters now varying from a single cub to as many as four.

They are fishing every night, and we lose between one to three trout a night dependant on how many and age of the cubs. The price to pay for the pleasure of having otters around!

Even at home I experience otters. Three times now over a period of six years my ornamental fishpond has been cleared out over the course of a couple of nights. Right outside my patio window I watched an otter chase, catch, and consume, three feet away from me, as many as ten orfe, goldfish, and koi carp, in one evening. These were probably grown cubs pushed out of the maternal territory, and were over landing to seek their own territory, when they smelled the water of my ponds.

Needless to say, I have given up on ornamental fish, and my ponds are now wildlife ponds.