Wyoming otters set to lose protected status after reclassification passes final vote
The likely statute change opens the door for relocating or killing the fish-eating mustelids when they’re deemed a nuisance, but not recreational hunting and trapping.
After pushback and some bold, albeit unsuccessful, amendments along its legislative journey, a proposal to change how otters are classified in Wyoming passed its final vote on Tuesday with no discussion and little fanfare.
House Bill 45, “Removing otters as protected animals,” takes otters off Wyoming’s “protected” species list, converting Lontra canadensis by default to a “nongame” animal instead. Its anticlimactic end came while on a “consent list” in the Wyoming Senate. That’s a tool the body uses to streamline its lawmaking process by grouping together typically non-controversial bills that are likely to pass without the need for further debate. Any senator could have removed the otter bill from the consent list for its third and final reading in the Wyoming Senate. None did.
That doesn’t mean that Jackson Republican Rep. Andrew Byron’s bill made it through the Senate unanimously. Senators can vote against any bill on a consent list, and some did. House Bill 45 passed 22-9, with opposition from Sens. Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester; Cale Case, R-Lander; Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep; Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne; Dan Laursen, R-Powell; Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie; Tim Salazar, R-Riverton; and Charles Scott, R-Casper.
If Gov. Mark Gordon signs the reclassification of otters into law, it doesn’t mean that the semi-aquatic mammals will be recreationally or commercially trapped. That would take the Legislature again reclassifying them, changing them to “furbearing” animals (currently that includes badger, beaver, bobcat, marten, mink, muskrat and weasel).
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department supported HB 45, which gives its wardens and biologists latitude to relocate or kill otters that are giving into their fish-eating instincts and raiding stocked, private fish ponds. Those management responses haven’t been allowed while otters had state “protected” status for the past 72 years — a classification that predates the Endangered Species Act.
House Bill 45 had its detractors, too.
“We need to do better at making wildlife decisions, especially for nongame animals,” said Wyoming Untrapped founder Lisa Robertson, who reported being pained by HB 45’s passage. “They need to be treated with more value.”
University of Wyoming professor and North American river otter expert Merav Ben-David also opposed the idea of doing away with the mustelid’s protected status. She thought it was premature, given that otters were trapped out of existence during the settlement era and remain scarce or absent in much of Wyoming.
“I would encourage a change in their status when I start getting complaints from anglers in the Big Horn River,” Ben-David testified to a Senate committee. “Once we have viable populations [throughout the state], then we can start thinking about changing the status.”
The version of HB 45 adopted by both the House and Senate changes a single word of Wyoming statute, striking otters from the list of protected species (others include black‑footed ferret, fisher, lynx, pika and wolverine). Upon the governor’s signature, it would take effect immediately.
Clarification: This story has been updated to specify that legislative action would be required to reclassify otters as a “furbearing” species. –Eds.
Cover otter photo by @samblandphotography.