Wheldrake Ings: Otter filmed playing with cubs at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve in first evidence of breeding since 1960s

Although otter sightings in various parts of Yorkshire have been increasing, it is more difficult to record definitive evidence of them breeding.

A mother and two cubs were filmed playing on the ice by a wildlife camera at the reserve near York during the March cold snap, the first time in ‘many years’ that a family group has been spotted, though there have been individual sightings.

Otter populations suffered catastrophic decline from the 1950s onwards due to increased used of pesticides on farms, the chemicals from which polluted rivers, and it was also legal to hunt them until a ban in 1978. Their recovery since has been steady, as by the 1960s they were considered almost extinct.

One of the reasons it is difficult to estimate otter numbers is that one male can have a territory of up to 30km along a river, and they are still considered rare and elusive. The British population is now thought to be 11,000.

An otter with young cubs was last seen at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Staveley reserve near Ripon in 2012.