«It remains a vulnerable species»- Corriere.it

There otter returns to Northern Italy, between Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Alto Adige, Lombardy and Liguria. The WWF reports it estimating a population of 80-100 individuals, a number not sufficient to guarantee the survival of the species. The signs of recovery of the otter continue (Lutra lutra), one of the rarest mammals in Italy, explains the environmental association in the monitoring promoted in collaboration with the University of Molise which has made it possible to update the map of the distribution of the species, particularly in those geographical areas where it was absent or with scarce presence signals. Territories historically inhabited and then abandoned due to direct impact and anthropic disturbance, continues the WWF. Without prejudice to the Italian population mainly concentrated in the southern areas (Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Calabria and increasing in Abruzzo and Molise), where the phase of expansion continues thanks also to the contact between the nuclei present, the study wanted to verify whether in the rest of Italy - Centre-North - the situation had somewhat changed compared to the past.

The monitoring - which will end at the end of the summer - has highlighted how the otter has returned to some regions of the North, from where it had not been reported for decades. the case of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Alto Adige, Lombardy, Liguria and as far as the Center is concerned, Lazio. Also reported in Veneto, in the province of Belluno. Instead, it is confirmed absent in Piedmont – apart from a nucleus reintroduced in the Ticino regional park – in Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria and the Marches. The picture that can be outlined is that we are witnessing a return of the species to the Alpine arc and gradually further downstream, thanks to the encroachment of specimens from Austria, Slovenia and France. As for the presence in Lazio, in more evident numbers than in the other regions monitoredvery probable that it is not a consequence of the expansion of the resident population in the South, but that it was an arrival from the sea.

The species is still today among the most endangered and isolated in Europe (classified as Vulnerable in the national Red List). If once upon a time direct destruction was the cause of decrease – for fur in particular – in the time been the loss or degradation of inhabited habitats, those river areas in particular, which have undergone drastic transformations in our country. With attention also to solving an increasingly frequent threat, especially where otters move more frequently, that of ending up run over by cars.

therefore, crucial to continue with all those conservation actions that have helped avoid extinction in recent decades. The ongoing monitoring comes about 40 years after the previous national census, also promoted by WWF Italy and with the contribution of the then Ministry of Agriculture. The WWF in Italy was the first to give the alarm on the state of the otter in the 80s, giving life to the Lontra Italia Group and coordinating the first and only national monitoring from the spring of 1984 to the autumn of 1985, in which it emerged that only 6% of the 1,300 monitored sites were actually occupied by the species. The association then participated in the drafting of the Manifesto of the Lontra Italia Group, signed in 1993, which led to the identification, among other things, of a series of Otter Centers including that of the WWF Oasis of Penne. It also participated, with its experts, in the drafting of the National Plan (PACLO), coordinated by ISPRA and which has been found to be largely disregarded to date. Among the main actions to safeguard the otter by the WWF, there was the creation of a network of key protected areas for the conservation of the species, such as the Oasis of Persano, Grotte del Bussento and Lago di Conza in Campania, Pantano di Pignola and Policoro in Basilicata, Cascate del Verde in Abruzzo, and support for the implementation of larger protection projects such as the park National of Cilento-Vallo di Diano and Monti Alburni.