The otter is back:the 'queen of rivers' again in the Italian Alpine regions

Among the factors that favored the "return to the north" of the otter, the crossing of the borders of specimens from Austria, Slovenia and France

ROME – They have passed 40 years since the last and only national monitoring, promoted by WWF Italy, of the population of otter (Lutra lutra), one of the rarest mammals in Europe and at the time at risk of extinction and the results of the new research are comforting:it was in fact confirmed return of the species to the Italian Alpine arc in regions from which it had disappeared for decades such as Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, Lombardy, Liguria and in the center it has reappeared in Lazio and Marche.This presence therefore adds to the southern population, the one that has remained vital over time, located in Campania and Basilicata as well as in Puglia, Calabria, Abruzzo and Molise. Also in light of the new monitoring, the current estimate of the otter population in Italy remains at 800-1,000 individuals, a number still well below the minimum vital limit which considers 4,000-5,000 individuals to make it safe.

This was revealed by the data provided by the Lontra Project promoted and financed by WWF Italy, in collaboration with the University of Molise, in the person of Anna Loy, one of the world's leading experts on the species.In addition to the regional representatives, all of whom have been engaged in field research for years, volunteers and operators from other organizations contributed, such as the Friuli V.G. Forestry Corps, park rangers of protected areas and university students.

For approximately 18 months of investigations, the entire team combed hundreds of kilometers along 35 river basins in the country, including Po, Tiber, Tagliamento, Adige, Isonzo, Magra, Arno, Ombrone, Liri-Garigliano, in search of traces of presence and in particular of the so-called spraints (excrements), characteristic of the species, and monitoring the images of video traps, such as those that reveal a family group in the Isonzo basin, the first certain data of reproduction in this area .This activity and the commitment to know and therefore consolidate the future of the symbolic species of rivers was celebrated today by the WWF on the occasion of the International Day of Action for Rivers - which every year reiterates the essential role of these environments are among the most threatened, considering that over 40% of Italian rivers have lost their good ecological status.

Among the factors that favored the "return to the north" of the otter, the crossing of the borders of specimens from Austria, Slovenia and France:in fact, rivers are formidable natural ecological corridors if their natural state is maintained.Instead, the positive signals from Lazio and Marche suggest a natural expansion of otters from the neighboring basins occupied by this species. For now, however, no trace in Piedmont (except for a nucleus reintroduced in the Ticino Regional Park), in Tuscany, in Umbria and in Emilia-Romagna, although in the latter case there have been some reports.One of the hypotheses that is being monitored is the possibility that the otter also uses the sea to move from one basin to another in the peninsular part:in fact, reports of specimens stopping in ports, swimming near beaches or being spotted near islands are increasingly frequent.

An important role for this return is also given by the presence of protected areas created in recent years, including many WWF Oases:the challenge today is to promote the connection between the vital population of the south and part of the center with the central-northern one.There are still many threats:the road crossings that otters, at least 50 in recent years, hit by cars, have in common with many other protected mammals such as bears, wolves, the fragmentation of rivers and the degradation of river and riparian habitats.The protection of species that are symbols of our biodiversity is among the objectives of the WWF's Our Nature campaign.
The complete results of the monitoring produced by the Otter Project will be presented on May 29th - on the occasion of Otter Day - International Otter Day:on that occasion the WWF and the partners involved will launch a new proposal to update the current National Plan (Paclo) which is unfortunately still ignored today.In the 1980s, the WWF was the first to raise the alarm about the conditions of the species:with the Lontra Italia Group he coordinated the first monitoring from which it emerged that only 6% of the 1300 monitored sites were inhabited.From that moment on, river oases were created in strategic areas such as Persano in Campania, on the Sele river, Policoro in Basilicata and support for larger protection projects such as the Cilento-Vallo di Diano and Monti Alburni national park, and a Center dedicated to the species in Penne in Abruzzo.