June 12, 2008

Otters use boathouses as cold storage

By KATHY GRAY
of The Dalles Chronicle

     There otter be a law.
     When their lodge in a corner of The Dalles Marina was submerged and inaccessible beneath the heavy spring runoff waters of the Columbia River, a family of otters found another way to store its food supply.
     A couple of marina tenants have begun finding stockpiles of duck carcasses, some partially eaten, under the floorboards of their boathouses.
     The first tenant discovered a supply when he entered his boathouse and spotted a dark body disappearing into his bathroom floor. He tore up the bathroom floor to discover the animal’s entry site and found 15 small bodies beneath.
     “They were just very neatly stored in rows,” said Kathy Norton, who oversees marina operations for the Port of The Dalles.
     The second tenant didn’t have to excavate. After an extended absence from her boathouse, the smell on her return tipped her off.
     A couple of local divers have made themselves available on short notice, should more otter food pantries be discovered by marina tenants, Norton said.
     “We don’t want to kill the little buggers, we just have to learn to live with them in harmony,” Norton said.
     The water mammals have provided some entertainment for the local tenants, who have kept an upbeat attitude despite dead duck discoveries, Norton said.