PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For the first time in 100 years, a North American River Otter was spotted at Ridley Creek.
The cute and fluffy mammal was caught on camera in December 2023 — sometimes even looking directly into it, making for great photo-ops.
Lauren McGrath, director of watershed protection at Willistown Conservation Trust in Newton Square says the otter species has been seen in other area waterways, like the Brandywine Creek, but having documentation that it made its way to the Ridley Creek watershed is encouraging for conservationists.
According to Willistown Conservation Trust, river otters disappeared from waterways across most of Pennsylvania by the early 1900s because of widespread fur trapping and habitat destruction by human development.
However, they started repopulating in northern Pennsylvania following reintroduction efforts in the 1980s.
North American River otters have thick fur, short legs, webbed feet, a long, narrow body, and flattened head “for streamlined movement in the water,” according to the National Wildlife Federation. They need large tracts of open space and high-quality waterways to thrive.
McGrath says Ridley Creek is heavily developed in the lower portions of the watershed, but if the otter came from the main stem Delaware, which it may have, it would have had to bypass some intense potential contamination locations with sys runoff, pollution, and not a lot of green space.
“...The fact that it's settled is a sign that what we are doing in the headwaters of Ridley Creek is providing what these animals need to thrive,” she said.
McGrath says another sign that the water quality has improved is the eastern elliptio, a freshwater mussel that made the creek home a few years ago.
"The discovery of those mussels was really exciting, but people don't get as jazzed about mussels as they do about something that is cute and fluffy and takes selfies," she said.
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