After a successful re-introduction of river otters to the state, Indiana wildlife officials are considering a fur trapping season for otters for the first time in decades.
INDIANAPOLIS — Efforts to restore Indiana’s river otter population have been so successful over the last two decades that state wildlife officials say they need to cull the population.
The Natural Resources Commission will hold a hearing Thursday in Plainfield on a proposal that would create a river otter trapping season for as early as next year, The Indianapolis Star reported (http://indy.st/1zvDpLw ).
Unregulated trapping for the fur trade and a loss of habitat wiped out so many otters that they were listed as a protected species in 1921. By 1942, otters had disappeared from the state, as they had from much of the country.
The Department of Natural Resources began releasing otters back into the state in 1995. Over five years, more than 300 otters from Louisiana were released at 12 Indiana sites, and by 2005, the otter had been removed from Indiana’s endangered species list. The animals now are found in 80 percent of the state’s counties, said Linnea Petercheff, a spokeswoman with the DNR’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
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