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Otters ?


londoneye
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Hi

As normal today (rather annoyingly in lashing rain !) we took our dog for a walk. Today we went around the edge of our 'local' lake, ie owned by some farmer and in the middle of nowhere. Very often we have approached said lake and heard 'things' diving into water.

Today for the first time we saw one of the 'things' and crumbs it looked an awful lot like an otter. Actually my first thought was 'mini' nessie, because we saw the head, a little hump and then a bit of a tail. It was grey/brown, appeared to have fur and probably close to a metre in length, counting tail.

Otter ? something else ?

We were very excited actually having spent 4 years hearing things dive into the water but never seeing them !
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Yes definitely ragondin/coypu. Otters are v secretive and would live in the real wild,as far as i know there aren't any in most of France,particularly the north. We live in a v wet area where Ragondin are a pest as they ruin the banks and cause leaks. As in Blighty, were imported from S America for the fur trade,then escaped.
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[quote user="londoneye"]oh no I've just googled it and it's horrible ! Quite spoilt by walk around that lake now - not the attractive otter like animal I was envisaging ... oh well many thanks[/quote]

The French are rather partial to a little Paté de Ragondin. [Www] Not sure that I would be in the queue!

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well I would probably rather eat it than look at it.

Reminds me of one of my neighbours who is very frequently saying 'bon pour mange' (excuse spelling a glass of wine been taken).

It was only when he eyed my CAT and said it that I got reall anxious (he was joking - I hope!)
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We saw a strange large rodent scurrying round a field next to a river on our 1st trip this year.  We asked a local what it could have been  (otter came to mind) and they said it was probably a ragondin.  We saw a picture of one a day later, it was on the package of pate.[:(]

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