(WWJ) - After getting wiped out in the early 1900s due to fur traders and deteriorating water conditions in the Detroit River, river otters have officially made their triumphant return to southeast Michigan, local biologists happily announced on Friday.
“It was the last thing I was expecting to see,” doctoral student Eric Ste Marie from the University of Windsor’s department of integrative biology, said to Great Lakes Now.
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Ste Marie said he was walking along the Detroit River the morning of April 25 when he noticed an animal bobbing around in the water.
It was too large to be a mink, he said.
When the animal flipped over to dive under the waves, Ste Marie noted it did not have a flat tail.
So not a beaver either.
Ste Marie said he ran to the edge of a pier underneath the Ambassador Bridge to get a closer look: it was most definitely a river otter.
Ste Marie's documented report is the first official sighting of the animal's return to the Detroit River in over 100 years. Biologists studying the river said a handful of citizens have called in anecdotal sightings of the river otter before, but no video or photographic proof was presented until Ste Marie's encounter on Monday.
“River otters were quite common in southeast Michigan, including the Detroit River, up through the arrival of European explorers and fur traders,” said Gearld P. Wykes, a historian from the Monroe County Museum System. “During the fur trade era, they were much sought after for their fur, along with beaver."
Biologists have labeled river otters as "indicator species," meaning their return to the river signals an improvement of environmental conditions.
Their return to the Metro Detroit waterways also shows the area is benefiting from conservation efforts which officials said have been running tirelessly to restore the river otter to their natural habitat.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources first reintroduced river otter back into eastern Ohio in 1986, releasing the animals in high water quality rivers and streams, officials said.
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From there, the river otter's population boomed and they began to spread westward and "expand their range."
Two decades later, the river otter populated areas in west Ohio. They then spread to western Lake Erie in Canada where river otters have not been seen in Point Pelee National Park since 1918.
And now river otters have made their way back into Detroit waterways to the excitement of officials at the Detroit Zoo.
“The Detroit Zoo is so excited to hear that the Detroit River is now clean enough for river otters and is committed to working with regional partners to further conservation efforts, including for river otters," Elizabeth Arbaugh, curator of mammals at the Detroit Zoological Society, said to Great Lakes Now.
As for Ste Marie, he hopes more people around the area get a glimpse of the river's newest residents.
“As a local resident, it makes me hopeful that the Detroit River ecosystem is healing and that soon these types of sightings may become more common,” Ste Marie said.