West Virginia Proposes New Otter Trapping Season

Texas isn’t the only place river otters are making a comeback.  The recovery of otter populations in a number of states across the nation has been an exciting trend, and is opening up the opportunity for responsibly regulated trapping seasons.

Just recently, wildlife officials in the state of West Virginia announced their plans to allow the trapping of river otters beginning in the 2011-2012 trapping season.

Rich Rogers, furbearer project leader for the Division of Natural Resources, said recent research showed that otters had become abundant enough to be trapped.

“We had known how widely they had spread throughout the state, but we didn’t know if there were enough individuals to support a trapping season,” Rogers said. “We finally got the data we needed to make a decision on that.”

Click here to read more about the otter recovery and the proposed trapping season.

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