Since being reintroduced to Indiana in the late 1990s, rivers otters are once again starting to thrive in the Hoosier state.
Over trapping and unregulated harvesting of otters in Indiana led to them being officially declared extinct in Indiana in 1942. But, through those reintroduction efforts in the late 90’s, Indiana DNR furbearer biologist GeriAnn Albers tells Indiana Outdoors they are doing “very, very well.”
It’s not known exactly how many river otters are now in the state, but Albers said the fact that this is the earliest trappers have hit the 600 otter quota since first allowing the trapping of otters in 2015 is a good indication that river otters are rapidly increasing in number in Indiana.
