WALNUT CREEK — River otters spent their last Monday lunch hour in November taking a swim and a siesta at the cement pond at Heather Farm Park. That’s it. That’s the news. Look at these photos of the furry, goofy aquatic weasels:
The river otters were struggling a few years ago, but they’ve rebounded and have made their way inland, following streams and creeks, and sometimes hoofing it over land from the Delta. In the mid-1990s, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife had listed them as “non-occurring” in the Bay Area, pretty much wiped out by trapping, pollution, lack of prey and loss of habitat.
But changes in water and wildlife management have allowed them to recover. Heather Farm Park put two human-made platforms in the pond after otters were spotted there in 2012, and the otters visit there often.
The islands made by Floating Islands West of Mokelumne Hill marked the company’s first municipal installation in the Bay Area. The islands’ $12,000 cost was reportedly offset by the savings from water chemicals the city stopped treating the pond with after installing them.
The two 100-square-foot “BioHaven Floating Islands” in the park’s concrete pond use recycled plastic drinking bottles on the bottom, which look like 12-inch-thick steel wool pads. Loaded with mulch and about 50 plants each, the islands serve as wetlands, designed to suck up pollutants from the lake floor and create shade for fish and otters.
Kids from Seven Hills School, up the road from Heather Farm Park, were the main planters on the islands.
Another draw for the otters is the 500-pounds-at-a-time releases of trout the city does periodically throughout the year:
VIDEO: Walnut Creek Recreation plants 500 pounds of trout in Heather Farm Park cement pond.
North American river otters like the pair photographed on Monday hunt those trout by using their vibrissae, or whiskers, to detect fish movement and other vibrations in the water before sinking their teeth into their prey. Otters can hold their breath for up to eight minutes and close ears and nostrils to keep water out as they swim around at seven miles per hour, or about three times faster than the average human.
They use their tails to balance when standing upright and as rudders to propel themselves when speeding up in water and to steer when slowing down.
Anyone with a valid fishing license issued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is free to compete with the otters fish-for-fish at the pond.
