A friend who is normally very knowledgeable about plants and animals reported to me today that he saw an otter in Brazos County. I gave him my best look over my glasses of disdainful skepticism.

Should I suggest that he see a doctor or are they occasionally seen in these parts?

Dude on here put a pic of some from his game cam not to long ago, said they aren't that uncommon.

I caught this on my game camera right off the Navasota River. Otters are pretty common in the area.

Yep, they can be found in Brazos County.

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River otters can be found in streams, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands and along marine coasts in all states and territories of the U.S. and Canada. River otters are being reintroduced in the Rocky Mountain region to counter the population decrease in the 1800s.

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Don't confuse your river otters and your sea otters.

River otter:


Sea otter:

I never saw an otter the whole time I was growing up in northeast Texas, but about 10 years ago I saw one dead on the highway beside a big slough. Since then I've seen several. One even moved into the tank in front of my parent's house and cleaned out the big fish before moving on.

nice marmots...

I've seen them several times in the Brazos river near CS

I was duck hunting at our place last week near Dayton and saw a couple of heads swimming by me in the water...thought they were they beavers that were always out there. Then I saw the tails and thought "man, I swear those two things are otters"...I guess it may have been. I'll have to loiok close this weekend.

About 5 years ago they started becoming fairly common in Northeast Texas. I see them frequently on Lake Fork and have seen them on the small tributary of big Sandy Creek on my property. The population in Southeast Oklahoma is booming, they probably praise God and the Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife Conservation for putting trout in Mountain Fork River.

MY buddies had one run/waddle across 2818 a few years back

We used to see them frequently on this little pond we duck hunted in NE Louisiana. Pretty fun to watch.

You can catch 'em if you use Wormers for bait.



Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied with knowin' I got no one left to blame

I spend a lot of time in river bottoms and have yet to see live one, though I know they are there. I found one dead one between the levees on the mainstem of the Trinity near downtown Dallas about five years ago, I'm still holding out that I'll see a live one one of these days.

On a related note, there are beavers (the 4-legged kind) all the way up here in the Palo Duro Canyon. Have seen the tree damage myself. I understand that they were all over the U.S. originally.

I have seen two in the back of Sulphur on Gibbons creek.

Seen'em in the Nasty-soda pretty regularly.

Gig'em

Long tailed stealth Nutria

Nasty, skinny nutria can be confused with an otter if you see one from a distance in the water.

Here's an otter I saw last year or so in Katy on Greenbusch (now Westheimer Parkway), just south of Katy Flewellen. Looks like he crawled from the bayou there and didn't make it across the road.

I've seen otters and minks in TX.

I have only ever seen wild otters in Brazos County and do so regularly in the Navasota River.

Your friend may still be certifiable.

I have seen one dead on the side of 105 about 5 miles east of Navasota, stopped an took pictures of it, but they are on my old phone. I have also seen groups of them in the bottoms close to Gibbons Creek in the past year.

I have seen minks and otters in the Cedar Creek bottoms when I was in high school.

Have a lot of them on the farm in NW LA. They can do some serious damage to fish populations in smaller tanks.

There used to be a family group that moved around the swamp that we crab in in Bridge City, until the dumb inbreeders started shooting at them

I swear people from BC can't help it, if it's cool and living, they have to shoot at it...

When did otters show up in Katy?
The roadkill one was right in my neck of the woods for 18 years and I never saw one. If they were there I would have seen or heard, since we lived on the bayous south of Katy.

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When did otters show up in Katy?
The roadkill one was right in my neck of the woods for 18 years and I never saw one. If they were there I would have seen or heard, since we lived on the bayous south of Katy.

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Loudest - If you go to Google maps and follow Pin Oak south from I-10 to where it turns in to Westheimer Pkwy/Greenbusch, you will see the area where I found the otter. It's on Westheimer Pkwy at the intersection of Shadow Forest Drive. I don't think that's a "bayou" per se as much as a very large drainage area.

There has been lots of development in the area, as you probably already know. I am sure it's pushing the critters places they normally may not go. My BIL hit a wild hog several years ago as he was going around a 90-degree curve out there. (Made great sausage, by the way! ) We used to see lots of deer there as well. Not many now, but I did have two large deer run in front of me as I drove on Greenbusch on two separate occassions very recently.

If you follow Cinco Ranch Blvd west to the intersection of Spring Green, you will see a large pond/"lake" with hiking trails. Some of the trees look like they were gnawed by beavers. I have yet to see one live, but they have placed wire around the base of the trees to prevent them from being completely chewed down. It's been a while since I have been over there, but the trees had quite an hour glass shape about a foot from the ground from being worked on by something. Very interesting. I'll have to see if I can get a picture one day.

Looking at Google maps of South Katy is like looking at a foreign country anymore. But I do think I remember that drainage ditch that goes from Greenbusch down to the Willow Creek Bayou or what we called "The Creek".
I used to live off of SaddleSpur Lane and my surname is the street name that is parallel and north of Saddlespur. We used to frequent EVERY body of water south of I-10 even to the point of having shotguns fired off overhead to drive us off Cinco Ranch ... back when it was a ranch.

Old Katy has gone to hell I guess.

Ha...that's interesting.

Google maps is certainly not the most up to date for that area either. Mr. Sass bought his house at the end of 2004, and the area has exploded since then (from our perspective at least). There are houses and developments comvering much of the areas Google shows as dirt or fields. You should drive around that area sometime.

Otters are the coolest animals in North America.

Sass,
I still have family down there, but I have to trust my instincts to find my way around.
When my family moved to Katy in 1971 there were 1760 people in Katy proper, which we didn't even live in. We had rice fields north and east of us. Crop dusters would buzz our house on weekend mornings. Falcon Point was a rice field. People were afraid to drive south of I-10 because we had the same 5 foot deep ditches but NO street lights ... and I think we scared people.

Nothing new, when you get old things change.

Yes, otters are very prevalent in this area. Have seen dead ones on highway six both north and south of B/CS. Have also killed several south of CS and in the Brenham area. Have heard from people in the city limits of Bryan and next to Bush library having seen them also. I never thought they would have been around before here, but believe me, they are. Will wreak havoc on people's private ponds and lakes.

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nice marmots...

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And let's also not forget...keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city...that ain't legal either.

I saw otters while fishing on Rayburn 20+ years ago.