The otter nonsense of Wyoming’s House Bill 45

House Bill 45 – Removing otters as protected animals is fewer than 100 words, yet still manages to speak volumes about what Wyoming values and what it doesn’t.

The measure, to be considered in the upcoming 2025 general legislative session, proposes striking otters from the list of “protected animals” in Wyoming statute 23-1-101, a list that also currently includes black-footed ferrets, fisher, lynx, pikas and wolverines.

By removing North American river otters from the protected species list, the bill’s 11 sponsors seek to legalize the killing of Lontra canadensis, a practice prohibited in Wyoming since 1953. It is an extraordinary move, given that we lack robust estimates of their abundance in Wyoming. They are most common in the Yellowstone, Green and Snake River drainages, and are rare or absent from all others. Their spread along waterways in Wyoming is painstakingly slow, especially compared to the recovery of otters in surrounding states. Why? This is unclear, although oil and natural gas development is likely affecting the species along the Green River. Declines in native fishes may also be responsible for the limited recovery of Wyoming’s otter populations.

The sponsors offer two reasons publicly in support of the bill.

One is that otters are making a tentative recovery in Wyoming. Having been extirpated over much of the state, their numbers have slowly increased, particularly in western Wyoming. Unlike the neighboring states of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah, where otters were extirpated, Wyoming never wiped them out completely. We can thank that stroke of luck to the creation of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, which served as de facto wildlife refuges. In the last 70 years, the species recolonized some of its old haunts, in parts of Lincoln, Sublette and Sweetwater counties.

Another stated reason for the bill is the supposed “nasty disposition” of otters. They may bite trespassers in their habitat, regardless of whether they are the two-legged or four-legged variant. Rep.-elect Mike Schmid (R-Pinedale), one sponsor of the bill, likes to mention an incident in which several youngsters took a float trip near La Barge some years ago.  They got bit. Such attacks on people are extremely rare. Only 44 cases of otter attacks have been published worldwide since 1875, compared with over 4.5 million dog bites annually in the U.S. A bite from an otter, which weighs as much as a cocker spaniel, may land you in the emergency room, but it’s unlikely to put you between two planks. The risk of such bites can be minimized by exercising common sense around their habitat, particularly when they have kits.  Otters, like other wild mammals, may run and hide, or defend themselves. As Wyomingites, isn’t that their right under the state’s stand-your-ground law? 

But sticking up for themselves isn’t otters’ only offensive quality. Schmid also seems troubled that otters eat fish and might discover his brother’s artificially stocked pond.

There is a third reason for this bill. It is one to whisper quietly, as it is the most important. Otters are a resource, like land, minerals, timber, water or grass. Trappers want access to what they believe is a recovering species. Otter pelts retail for $90 – $150. Trapping native furbearers is considered a healthy recreational pursuit — for the trapper, if not the animal. Trappers are a small, influential constituency for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Bowing to their wishes was a recurring theme of Brian Nesvik’s tenure, the recently retired director of WGFD. It has been a long, slow road to get WGFD, and its commissioners, to agree to minimal reforms to the state’s trapping regulations, such as setbacks of traps from public trails.

Trapping was one of the main methods of otter extirpation across North America in the last 100 years. The species recovered in neighboring states through expensive reintroduction efforts that lasted decades. So, as soon as the species shows signs of recovery in Wyoming, our first official response is to resume harvesting pelts? There is something amiss with this kind of stewardship. It is more akin to ecological vandalism.

Thanks to research biologists like Merav Ben-David and her students at the University of Wyoming, there is a growing understanding of otters’ critical role in maintaining ecological integrity and supporting the biological diversity of our landscapes by moving nutrients from aquatic environments to riparian riverbanks. The presence of otters and beavers is a sign to land managers that riparian areas are in good shape. They are likely to remain so, provided keystone species like these are allowed to flourish.

Bob Budd, a Wyoming writer, the chairman of Wyoming’s Sage Grouse Implementation Team, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, as well as a former rancher. He has a strong and practical interest in ecology. In an eloquent set of essays about land management called “Otters Dance: A Rancher’s Journey to Enlightenment and Stewardship,” Budd asked: what are river otters worth in a landscape?

My best guess as a retired veterinarian: River otters alive are worth considerably more than a bunch of trophy pelts.