What to do River Otters Eat?

As we were finishing up our day on the Noyo River, we were delighted with the appearance of a river otter. One never knows what these rascally mammals are going to do so I grabbed the camera and followed as it cruised along the bank of the river.

Jeff had noted a western grebe around the bend and commented that the otter was probably hunting it. Sure enough. As the otter came around the bend, the grebe became alarmed and dove. The otter floated in the current like a small log closer to the grebe. We have had a lot of debris in the river from heavy rains and a high tide so it was perfect camouflage.

The otter dove and the grebe dove again and next thing we knew . . . the otter came up with the grebe in its mouth. Here's the video of the otter with the grebe. Turn your sound off if you don't want to hear the bird's calls of alarm.



It took the otter several minutes to kill the bird and then he took her up the bank . . . for dinner by the river. Kind of gory, but nature on the water before our eyes.