State Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, swears he doesn’t hate otters, but his House Bill 45 legislation would remove the aquatic critters as a protected animal in Wyoming. 

“I love otters,” Byron said. “I truly love otters.”

Byron said the primary reason for wanting to remove otters from the state’s protected status is to allow for hunting of the species that he believes has fully recovered since becoming nearly extinct in Wyoming about 70 years ago.

An avid fisherman, Byron said he saw many otters while out fishing this summer.

“They seem to be everywhere now,” he said.

Byron said he’s also received multiple complaints from people in Teton and Lincoln counties that otters have been eating up a sizable chunk of the fish populations there. 

He wants to remove the otters’ protected status so that Wyoming Game and Fish can have more power to manage the species, but said he has no desire to see it hunted or trapped. 

“It just opens up the opportunity to manage them,” he said. “There’s a number of animals we don’t manage, good or bad.”

Similar arguments have been made in Wyoming for delisting the grizzly bear from federal protected status. 

Otter Density

Currently, otters, along with the black‑footed ferret, fisher, lynx, pika and wolverine, are all considered protected animals in Wyoming and therefore can’t be hunted. 

What Byron’s bill would do is allow Wyoming Game and Fish to manage the otter as regular wildlife, which could open the door for it to be potentially managed for hunting and trapping someday.

State Sens. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo; Dan Dockstader, R-Afton; Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower; Bill Landen, R-Casper; and Reps. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley; Bob Davis, R-Baggs; Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland; Mike Schmid, R-La Barge; and J.D. Williams, R-Lusk; have co-sponsored the legislation.

Otters are not a species protected federally by the Endangered Species Act.

Otter Disbelief

According to Game and Fish, otters have been a protected species in Wyoming since 1953. The northern river otter is the lone species of otter in Wyoming.

Historically, there were northern river otter populations across most major river drainages in the United States, Canada and much of Wyoming, but fur trapping, pollution and habitat degradation decimated the species by the mid 20th century.

University of Wyoming professor Merav Ben-David, one of the state’s perennial otter experts, said the river otter was completely extinct outside Yellowstone National Park by the time it became a protected species in Wyoming in 1953.

Various reintroduction efforts conducted throughout the Rocky Mountain region have been successful, but Ben-David said the otter population in Wyoming is still doing “terribly.” 

The main population centers for otters in Wyoming are in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Greater Green River Basin of southwest Wyoming, although there’s some evidence they’ve started traveling up the Laramie River from Colorado to populate southeast Wyoming.

A 2010 Game and Fish study estimated 35-44 otters live around the Green and New Fork rivers, and designated the animal as “very rare” with “moderate vulnerability.” 

UW studies performed in 2015 and 2022 of the otter populations in the Green River found an average of one otter per 2.39-3.65 kilometers. Ben-David said a healthy population would represent three or four times those numbers.

“These are really low numbers compared to other areas,” she said.

Ben-David said the biggest reason why otters have been slow to recover in Wyoming is because their recovery started on lake-based habitats in Yellowstone. Rivers, she said, are a much more suitable location for otters to have success.

“Rivers are better for more fishing capacity,” she said.

Donal O’Toole, a UW professor and veterinary pathologist, said otter introduction programs in Missouri, Colorado and New York have had much more success in growing back otter populations than in Wyoming.

“Why are we different from other states?” he questioned. “Before we start killing things, we might want to make sure killing them makes any ecological sense.” 

Game and Fish told Cowboy State Daily in 2023 that the agency does some passive monitoring of otters’ distribution around the state, which includes updating their range and distribution maps based on submitted observations by staff and the public. Though trappers aren’t allowed to kill otters, they’re encouraged to report seeing them to help Game and Fish better ascertain their population and range in Wyoming. That’s according to the agency’s current fur bearing animal hunting or trapping regulations.

What’s Driving it?

O’Toole and Ben-David believe the main push for the legislation is out of frustration among people in southwest Wyoming who stock their own private ponds with fish.

“I think the need for change in law is being driven by a very personal vendetta,” Ben-David said. “It’s a misguided decision to change the law. There’s so many other wildlife things we need to worry about. This is ridiculous.”

During a Game and Fish Commission meeting in March, Alpine resident Tim Haberberger told the panel that people have been illegally killing and trapping otters in southwest Wyoming by the hundreds, disposing of the carcasses in dumpsters.

“This is getting ridiculous, there’s so many being caught and trapped in beaver traps,” he said. 

Haberberger said Wyoming is one of the few states where otters can’t be trapped. He wants the activity legalized and managed in Wyoming.

“It needs to (be) discussed,” he said.

But neither Ben-David nor O’Toole believe a desire to trap the otter is a major motivation behind Byron’s bill. Ben-David said the market for river otter fur has substantially declined, bringing in about $90-$150 per pelt in Alaska, where it’s legal. 

When factoring in the time and energy to trap an otter, Ben-David said most people don’t find it to be worth their time when they could trap other game and make much more money.

“Trapping in the mountains is way easier and you can make way more money,” Ben-David said. “If in one year you’d get 10 otter pelts, you’d have to wait 50 years to get another 10.”

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.