Otterly adorable: River otter pups found hidden under Richmond shed

Chances are, at some point, everyone encounters a not-so-welcome visitor in or around their home. 

Perhaps a destructive squirrel in the attic, a smelly skunk under the porch or a raccoon absolutely destroying garbage bins. 

A recent call to Richmond, B.C.’s Steveston neighbourhood was otterly unheard of. 

Alex Ritz, owner of Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control, had to find and relocate a trio of otter pups. 

“It’s a one-of-a-kind [call] so far for me,” he told CBC’s On The Coast. 

“Otters are a bit of a rarity for us.”

The home was located out by the Steveston wharf — where otters are sometimes seen looking for a meal, as fishing boats bring in fresh fish. 

Typically, if an otter is in your midst, you’d see signs of digging, Ritz said. 

“In this case, the homeowners actually did see the otter kind of running around for a few nights,” he said. It was carrying nesting material and repeatedly disappearing behind the shed.  

A wildlife expert went to check things out, and saw the tell-tale signs.

They made some noise in the shed and heard a rustling, and guessed a family of otters was living under the structure of the shed. 

Ritz arrived the following day to look around and figure out how to get the otters out. 

Fortunately, he said, the pups were home alone. 

“We got a little bit lucky in that we didn’t have to try to scare her out to look for the babies.”

But finding them wasn’t easy.

“She had decided to kind of push them in all the way to the other side of the shed from where the hole was,” he said. “She was being a little tricky with it.”

Ritz’s team started digging a one-foot trench, and put up a wildlife-proof steel wire to prevent the otter from digging through in the future. 

It was during the digging that they discovered a nest. 

“It was a bit more moist under there,” Ritz zaid. “So lo and behold, I kind of reach in and grab some of the nesting material and I finally see the babies there. There’s three baby otters.”

He pulled the pups out and put them in a heated box, under a tarp to shade them. 

“[The box had] a flap door and everything so [the mother] can get in there and take them on her own terms,” Ritz said.

The company then put in preventative screening along the bottom of the shed so the otter family couldn’t get back in.

Later that night, the homeowners told Ritz the mother otter had come and taken her pups away one by one. 

Trites said river otters, while cute, can be messy. Boat owners have raised concerns about otters getting onboard their vessels and making a mess with food scraps and feces, Trites said. 

“They are super messy eaters. If you ever come in after a river otter party, they just left it in shambles,” he said. 

And, they’re kind of smelly, he added. 

“If you do have otters present, you smell them before you see them. It’s a very pungent odour, it’s a musky, strong odour, which is the way they mark their territories,” he said. 

But, Trites said, their presence in the area is a sign the surrounding environment is in good shape.

If someone thinks they have otters on their property, he suggests leaving them alone, if possible. 

“If they’re recently born, it’s a death sentence if you’re going to remove them,” Trites said. 

“We are living in their habitat and they are taking advantage of structures that are going to be safe for them to give birth.”

As they get older, he said homeowners should seal up the area where otters are getting in to ensure they don’t cause problems in the future.