This weekend I was joined in my daily ottering by my cousin Kate. We set out in the boat for a backcountry campsite on Yellowstone Lake, and were fortunate enough not to get eaten by bears, although a mule deer did try to steal our breakfast.

We managed to navigate our boat down to the remote reaches of the southeast arm, and collected some good otter hair and scats. We also decided that it would be a good idea to do fieldwork in sandals, and as a result I nearly lost a toenail and walked around the lake with a bloody foot (good thing there aren’t sharks in Yellowstone Lake!)

At the last site we visited, I heard odd snuffling noises as I collected some smelly otter scats. And we realized….there was an otter inside the den right in front of us. He poked his head out a few times for us. Any day you see otters is just a good day.