New light on otter mystery

The solitary and mysterious lives of British otters are being uncovered by Cardiff scientists - thanks to help from the public. Otters were already understood to use scent as their main means of communication. However, little was known about what information was communicated or the social functions of the scent. Part of the problem for scientists has been the elusive nature of the otter in the wild. The pioneering Cardiff University Otter Project, currently led by Elizabeth Chadwick, got round the problem by appealing to the public to send in dead otters they found. By teaming up with Carsten Müller, a chemical ecologist and Eleanor Kean, postgraduate researcher, the scientists have been able to study the scent glands from more than 150 otters, making new discoveries about scent signalling. The team at the School of Biosciences has uncovered a complex mix of 432 chemicals, including some previously thought to be absent from otter secretions.