Quel avenir pour la loutre en Belgique ? ; The otter in Belgium: what can we hope ?

After de Selys Longchamps (1842), the otter in Belgium was a widespread species along all the full of fish rivers and was regarded as a pest namely in the fishponds of the Campine. This animal becomes extremely rare now: in Wallony, we only recorded one place where cubs are reared every year. The main reasons for this steep population decrease are well known: i. the otter has been systematically destroyed by hunters, fishermen and trappers who were receiving bounties till 1965 ! ii. the water pollution and the radical changes of the rivers physical characteristics (dredging, straightening and... Mehr ...