Otters are officially off the state’s list of protected animals, as a result of the successful passage of HB 45. Gov. Mark Gordon signed the bill reclassifying the species into law on Feb. 24. The change is effective immediately.
Otters are now listed as nongame animals under the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s (WGFD) classification, meaning the agency can manage the critters on a more case-by-case basis and relocate them if need be. That includes issuing permits to relocate or kill otters, but only in the case of conflicts with landowners or for scientific and educational research.
At a Senate committee hearing on Feb. 11 before the bill became law, WGFD Chief of Wildlife Dan Smith emphasized that the change does not create any sort of open season on otters.
“There would not be a commercial season, there wouldn't be a trapping season,” he said, adding there’s no hunting season either. “There would be basically no authorized take without a permit from the department, and the only time we would issue a permit is for research or for conflict.”
At that same committee meeting, WGFD Director Angi Bruce said the change gives the department an “extra tool” to manage the species.
“ We can do mitigation practices, fencing and other things, but this would allow us to address those conflict[s],” she said. “I personally believe that when we are able to go in and address conflict situations with landowners, it helps build support for that species as they become more popular across the state.”
Bruce said the agency has heard complaints from private landowners about otters getting into their private fish ponds. She said the agency can currently set up electric fences in that scenario, but the change in status could open up more options.
“If none of those things work that we're trying on the ground, we could trap and move them to someplace else. And in the end, if nothing works, that still would give us the tool to lethally remove them, but that would be a last step,” she said.
Rep. Andrew Byron (R-Jackson) sponsored the bill after a failed attempt to ask WGFD to relocate some otters from a local waterway last summer. He then learned more about their protected status, which has been in place since 1953. But he said the bill has created a lot of confusion.
“There are fears out there that this is an all-out attack, this is a free for all. This is, you know, anyone can do anything with otters. It's really, really not the case,” he said.
Byron emphasized that the bill didn’t come from an interest in trapping otters for profit.
“ I'm told that [in] the industry of trapping, this is not a pelt that's even worth its time because it's not selling for enough right now,” he said.
In its journey to becoming law, the bill attracted a lot of attention and received consistent pushback from some members of the public.
Merav Ben-David, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wyoming, testified against the bill during both its House and Senate committee hearings. She’s been studying otters for over 40 years and called the bill “premature” during one of those hearings.
“ We do have otters in western Wyoming, in the Green River, the Snake River and Yellowstone National Park. We do not have viable otter populations elsewhere,” she said.
Ben-David said otters are in the “initial steps” of returning to rivers after being heavily trapped at the start of the 20th century, but emphasized that their comeback isn’t happening in all waterways across the state.
“ We would be smart to wait until we get viable populations in other places, [like] along the Wind River. I would encourage a change in their status when I start getting complaints from anglers in the Bighorn River or friends of mine who live in Glendale.”
The professor said some of that variability in population rebound could point to underlying water quality issues. She said her research has shown that otters are highly sensitive to accumulated aquatic toxins that don’t impact fish and are therefore an “excellent” indicator of water health.
“The fact that we see amazing fisheries, really world class, in all our waterways, but no otters in sustainable numbers, is a cause of concern … We should let the population expand, and if they don't establish [a] viable population on the Bighorn River, we should go in and determine why not,” she said.
The bill was briefly amended in its Senate committee hearing to effectively remove the “protected animals” class, which also includes black-footed ferrets, fishers, lynx, pika and wolverine. If that had passed, black-footed ferrets, lynx and wolverine would have maintained their federal Endangered Species Act protections.
However, that effort died on the Senate floor over concerns about altering the bill to become a much different bill. Ultimately, the bill passed the House with a 52-8 vote and passed the Senate with a 22-9 vote before being signed into law by Gordon.
