Ocean Tramp just left for her first trip of the season. She is carrying a team of scientists to Isla de los Estados at the eastern entrance of the Beagle Channel. The team is led by Dr. Alejandro Valenzuela who studies the endangered Southern river otter.
Studying southern river otters is a challenging task. Two key factors make studying these otters no easy feat! First, the Southern River otter is shy compared to its northern sea otter cousins, so Dr. Valenzuela and his team must be creative in how they collect data. They must set motion cameras, collect scat, and look in the landscape for “goldilocks” conditions that the river otter prefers. Secondly, once one leaves Ushuaia, the preferred habitat of the river otters, along the coast of the Beagle channel, is very challenging to reach. The options are by foot over many days, by horseback, or by boat. In addition to these factors, things such as high winds, changing weather, and overall cold temperatures make these otters hard to study.
This trip is sponsored by a Disocvery Channel grant through the Explorers Club. This trip is the second of two trips funded through this grant. The team will attempt to go again to the challenging south coast of Isla de los Estados to recover the cameras set last year. Stay tuned
Thanks to Mak @martin_mak_ilustracion/ for the otter drawing – he came last year as crew and is an amazing scientific illustrator
