It is “a real event” and “a promising observation”, according to the Cantonal Office of Agriculture and Nature (OCAN). After decades of absence, an otter was observed and filmed this summer along the Arve, in a wooded area in the canton of Geneva. The sequence, recorded by a woman, allowed the Info-Fauna Foundation to confirm the identity of the animal. The native species of Switzerland had disappeared from the country in 1989 and from the canton of Geneva in the 1940s, in particular because of the construction of the Verbois dam.
The decline had affected the whole of Europe, but in recent years, we have observed a spontaneous return. Otters from Austria are recolonizing the Engadine via the Inn and the Alpine Rhine. The species is also progressing from the south of France and Haute-Savoie. A first Geneva observation had already taken place in 2014, but it was isolated.
The presence of the otter on the Arve could give it access to Lake Geneva and the Alpine tributaries. This would help to reestablish a connection between the two large European populations of this threatened mammal, separated since the end of the 20th century, notes OCAN. This link would promote the genetic mixing necessary for its conservation.
