Lucy & Other Animals

The purpose of this post is to raise awareness about otter road casualties and illegal or unintended trapping. Last week (9th January) saw the tragic death of a beautiful Eurasian otter ( Lutra lutra ). It was on my way to the Middle Level Commissioners (MLC) offices in March (Cambridgeshire) that I spotted the corpse on the side of a busy main road and I pulled over to take a look. Once I had reached the otter, I realised that it was probably a relatively young animal, since it wasn't much bigger than a domestic cat. The hind feet of the otter corpse (09/01/2018). With a pang of sadness (otters are one of my favourite animals), I saw that it had a head wound, most likely from a collision with a car. The pool of blood in which the otter lay was relatively fresh and very little smell issued from the body, indicating that it had not been there long, probably around 48 hours. A closer inspection of the animal revealed that its abdomen was slightly swollen and tha...

I'm always looking to improve my field identification skills, and expand my knowledge of British mammals. Last month (Saturday 18th November) my boyfriend Joe and I went along to the Mammal Society's first annual harvest mouse day at Doxey Marshes in Stafford. Doxey Marshes is a nature reserve characterised by rough grassland and wetland habitats, managed by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. At first glance, this reserve seemed an unlikely place for secretive mammals such as harvest mice ( Micromys minutus ), otters ( Lutra lutra ) and water shrews ( Neomys fodiens ) to inhabit since it's located right on the urban fringe, yet all three species manage to persist there. Doxey Marshes Nature Reserve in Stafford. The training course was fully booked and we were guided by Derek Crawley, the founder and chair of the Staffordshire Mammal Group since 1999. Derek was immensely knowledgable about British mammals, having been a Staffordshire Mammal Recorder since 1998, as well...