A dead otter was found today on the boardwalk at Rijeka Crnojevića, in the heart of the Skadar Lake National Park.
This is the second time that this rare and legally protected species has been found dead in Montenegro this year, because in mid-January in Žabljak in the city itself, the corpse of an otter was filmed next to a container.
The law stipulates six months to five years of imprisonment for killing these animals.
The founder of the Living Green Association, whose main goal is to protect the otter, Ninoslav Đurović, told "Vijesta" that he was informed during the day that this legally protected species was found dead in the area of Rijeka Crnojevića, and that he reported the case to the ranger service of the National Parks of Montenegro (NPCG).
“The otter was found in a tree on the shore above the water. Officials from NPCG will deal with the case. For now, I don't know if there are traces of violence on this individual. I will report the case to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry", said Đurović.
He appealed to take care of otters, to protect them, because it is a species that is an indicator of a healthy and clean environment, and there are not many of them in Montenegro.
"Its number is small, but there are countries where they are not there at all, due to the use of pesticides they have disappeared, such as in Belgium and the Netherlands. There they try to return them to nature. Therefore, we have them in our environments and we should take care of them. Apart from Lake Skadar, in Montenegro there are them in the area of Tara, Bojana", says Đurović.
According to him, its habitats are clean rivers and lakes, and the otter can also be found at sea, near a stream or river, which is the case with Bojana.
"The otter lives on banks with vegetation and where there is enough food for it. It is a carnivore, it feeds on frogs, snails, smaller birds, mice". He points out that there may be a total of eighty otters in our country, and that type of animal species is known as territorial.
"So you can have one otter, a male, with two to three females at 60 kilometers. If the second comes, then there is a conflict. Their habitats were also threatened by the construction of small hydroelectric plants. Many fishermen think that the otter is their enemy, that it takes away their catch, but it eats one fish a day. We should appeal to the locals, fishermen, to pay attention to that animal, if it is in trouble, to help. "There has been no recorded case of an otter 'lutra', a species that lives in Montenegro, attacking a human," Đurović pointed out.
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