Otter encounters in Asturias

A faint splash and a tail flicking from the water. An otter! After months of looking, this was our first Asturian otter and since that sighting 3 years ago it has become somewhat of an obsession.

Two rivers meet in the Asturian town of Arriondas. The fast flowing Río Sella born in the Picos de Europa mountains joins with the slightly calmer Río Piloña. Both are prime otter territories with trout and eels providing their staple diet. A solitary male otter can travel far, sometimes covering 20 kilometres, whilst the females (and young) tend to remain in one section of the river.

Otters are considered extremely shy, mainly nocturnal animals, so it has been a privilege to learn their routines and observe them so frequently during the daytime. Our sightings can range from the briefest of glimpses to a full-on otter watch, the record being for over 2 hours!

They appear accustomed to the background noise of human activity and also seem tolerant to a distance close enough to photograph with a long lens. However, spotting them on a foggy, dark morning can be difficult, especially as they tend to navigate the river swimming low and clinging to the bank. As we have often frustratingly discovered, if spooked, otters can vanish at will.

Otter eating a piece of lamprey.

An otter's mind is dominated by hunting. Their relentless pursuit of food provides good watching opportunities. They can be totally fixated on the task in hand and luckily for us less distracted by people nearby. Our most thrilling encounter was an otter catching a lamprey, both species can be rare enough to see, let alone together. A lamprey is a scarce, jaw-less, eel-like fish and only able to survive in clean waters. We witnessed a male otter hunting a lamprey of 1.5m in length and it took a further 15 minutes to subdue its violent struggling. The fully grown lamprey is a large meal and the otters often cache pieces and eat them over several sittings.

Fresh otter tracks.

As with all wild animals, the signs they leave behind often provide useful clues. During long torturous 'no show' periods, otter spraint (excrement) and tracks offer some comfort and help us learn about their routines, favourite places and diet.

Other wildlife that inhabits the river provide a welcome distraction to our daily walk. The ducks and moorhens can sometimes give us a heads up to an approaching otter, freezing like statues or fleeing in panic tends to be their strategy. Although duck is on the menu and they certain make attempts, I've not seen an otter successfully hunt one.

Kingfishers, dippers, wagtails, grey herons, little egrets, short-toed treecreepers, woodpeckers amongst others are also plentiful and them alone will make any walk worthwhile.

However, the sight of an otter remains the richest reward, always leaving us craving for more and in turn encourages you to look more closely and with luck encounter something new.

Our most recent sighting of an otter cub

Entrance written by John Shackleton.

A photo blog of wildlife watching in Asturias can be found on his web page www.wildasturias.com

Chamois

We have had lots of good weather this autumn and I’ve been able to make the most of it, doing some lovely high mountain walking in the Picos de Europa. On my walks I have had the chance to see a lot of chamois, which is probably the most representative fauna species of The Picos de Europa.


This amazingly agile animal is generally found above 1,500m and as a mountain dweller is very well adapted to living in the rugged, rocky landscape of the Picos de Europa.
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A fully grown chamois reaches a height of about 75 cm and weighs about 50 kg. Both males and females have short horns which are slightly curled backwards. In summer, the chamois' fur has a rich brown colour which turns to a light grey in winter. Distinct characteristics are a white face with pronounced black stripes below the eyes, a white backside and a black dorsal strip. Chamois can reach an age of up to 20 years.
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The hooves are thin and highly versatile, capable of running with extreme agility over difficult rocky terrain as well as snow and ice fields. This agility is due to the unique design of the cushions that occupy the central part of their hooves


Chamois are social animals that move in small groups in search of mountain pastures. These groups are formed only by males (which may be solitary) or only by females and their offspring, which only meet during the mating season.
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Their sight, smell and hearing are excellent. This helps them quickly identify their predators, including bears, wolves, lynx and men. Other dangers to the chamois are avalanches, to the extent that it is not uncommon to find whole herds killed by avalanches at the time of thaw.

In the national park of The Picos de Europa there is an estimated population of about 5,000 individuals. Although they are active throughout the day the best time to see them is in the morning or early evening. One of the (relatively) easier walks where there is a good chance of seeing them is from Pan de Carmen near the lakes of Covadonga up to the Ordiales viewing point. (More information on this walk and others on the self guided walking section of our web page)

Walking up to the Ordiales view point with chamois admiring the views!

Wild boar on the farm

The hotel farm is part of the national game reserve of the Sueve Mountains which are just behind the hotel. Most years we see signs of the wild boar where it has been rooting around the meadows digging up plant tubers and roots and looking for food in general. They love the roots of the plant Lords and Ladies and in early spring the boars go through the farm systematically digging up these plants. Unfortunately they also love orchid rhizomes which can be particularly annoying as they can up root 20 or 30 orchids in a night.

Up until this year we have only ever actually seen a boar on the farm, three or four times throughout the 13 years that we have lived here. However this year in April we sighted a large boar a number of times around our house and Joe even saw it late one night in her flower garden when returning from the hotel.

But two weeks ago we had the first sighting of the mother boar, now with 6 young boars! Since then the sightings have become a lot more regular with many guests having seen the young boars playing in the upper farm meadows in the early hours of the evening, as can be seen in the photo.