Two young male otters have been released on the north side of the Krimpenerwaard. With this, otters are swimming in the polder for the first time in fifty years, nature organization Zuid-Hollands Landschap announced on Monday.
Door NU.nl/ANPThe otters are called Jan and Leon, named after two aldermen who have committed themselves to nature in the region. Jan and Leon are the only otters that are released in the Krimpenerwaard for the time being. According to regional head Maarten Breedveld of the Zuid-Hollands Landschap, there is “an enormous food supply” here.
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The invasive American crayfish lives in the area. This disrupts aquatic life in ditches and puddles. “It is therefore a bonus that the otter eats this crayfish,” says Breedveld. There are also thousands of kilometers of ditches and banks in the polder, ideal for the otter.
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Jan and Leon already knew each other from their stay in a Frisian otter sanctuary and are therefore already used to each other. The conservation organization expects the male otters to make their own territory. “In the Reeuwijkse Plassen and in the Nieuwkoopse Plassen there are already other otters to be found,” says Bellwinkel. “We assume that the otters will find their own mate there.”
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Dutch road network was in the way of the otter
At the end of the eighties, the otter became extinct in the Netherlands. This was partly due to the poor water quality after the intensification of agriculture, says Joosje Bellwinkel of Zuid-Hollands Landschap. “There were also more and more roads in the Netherlands. Otters can swim up to 7 kilometers a day. As a result, they had to walk over the roads more and more often, and were then killed.”
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Much has improved in the Netherlands since the 1980s. For example, there are now fauna tunnels that animals can pass through, so that they can avoid the roads. There are also new nature reserves and the water quality has improved, according to the nature organization. In 2002, otters were released for the first time in the north of our country. The otter is now back in Friesland, Gelderland and Overijssel.
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In addition to Zuid-Hollands Landschap, the province of Zuid-Holland and the Veenweiden Krimpenerwaard Steering Group have also committed themselves to the return of the otter. According to Berend Potjer, deputy of South Holland, the eviction of Jan and Leon is a great milestone in the development of the nature network. He hopes that they will be able to “date with peers” from Reeuwijk, Nieuwkoop and the Biesbosch.
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