As part of the Natural Course project, we are running a campaign to get records of otter sightings in Greater Manchester. The occasional anecdotal report implies that the otters are passing through looking for a suitable territory, whereas a cluster of records would provide much stronger evidence that they have actually returned to live here.

Please use this Simple Record Form to inform the Greater Manchester Local Records Centre of any otter sightings.

There was a press release, picked up by Manchester Evening News among others: Otters spotted in Greater Manchester's rivers after years of declining numbers

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Mike Beard
Natural Course Project Officer

Natural Course
#naturalcourse

A sighting of an Otter was made close to the City Centre by a very reliable observer a few months ago now too. I missed this on Springwatch tonight though (don't watch it ) but it's a brilliant bit of news.

Springwatch tonight showed CCTV images of an Otter on the move through Manchester city center. I don't know when it was filmed but demonstrates they are around at least.