Otters Otis and Ollie make a home in Iowa State University's Lake LaVerne
The hottest late-night dining spot on Iowa State University's campus might also be its coldest and most exclusive to a couple of otters.
At least two North American river otters have been seen in or on top of the partly frozen Lake LaVerne, located just across the street from the university's student union and the many restaurants and bars of Campustown.
Adam Janke, an assistant professor in Iowa State's Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, said for otters "to be in that lake, I think it’s pretty exceptional," given the close proximity to so many people and traffic — and that the animals found open water there at all.
Just getting into the lake would have been a journey. Lake LaVerne is fed by College Creek, which does flow between western Ames and Ioway Creek, but College Creek is diverted underground at points where major roadways and parts of campus and Campustown have been built on top of it.
River otters are found throughout Iowa — after being successfully reintroduced in the 1980s after a six-decade hiatus due to hunting and habitat loss — but even though Janke said otters use Ioway Creek, that's about a mile away from the lake, and he said Ioway Creek is nearly frozen.
However the otters got to Lake LaVerne, "It's a real conservation success story in this state," Janke said.
'I have nicknamed them Otis and Ollie.'
Bella Maiwurm, a freshman from Prior Lake, Minn., who is studying animal ecology and is one of Janke's students, said her roommate noticed the otters on Jan. 23 and sent her a picture.
Maiwurm and her suitemates went to look for themselves, and though they saw the animals each evening for several days, it was too dark to get decent photos or video.
Otters are most active at night, Janke said, and sure enough, Maiwurm said the animals were not out during the daytime. However, she went down to the lake at dawn on Jan. 26, was able to get some footage and brought it to class to share.
Janke teachers a class on the principals of fisheries and wildlife conservation and the otters were perfect topic.
"We talk about wildlife conservation strategies, the success and the remaining challenges," he said.
"Working for conservation is something that I want to do in the future and seeing them is a reminder that conservation works. Plus, I'd consider myself an animal nerd so seeing any sort of wildlife is always exciting," Maiwurm said of the otters.
"I have nicknamed them Otis and Ollie," she said.
Janke has since watched the animals sometimes at night and shot more video of them.
He said it's impossible to know what the relationship of the otters is from a distance, whether they're siblings hunting together or a mating pair.
River otters' diet can include fish, frogs, crayfish, turtles, insects and other small mammals such as mice, and they may hunt alone or pairs underwater or on land, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
It's unlikely that the otters in Lake LaVerne will deplete the fish population there, so how long the animals stay will probably depend on how much people leave them alone, Janke said.
For the otters' well-being, he advised not approach or touch them, to observe them from a distance and don't shine lights on them at night.
For people wanting the best view, he said to be patient and stay for a couple of minutes, because the animals may be underwater at the time.
Just how unusual is it for otters to live in an urban area?
Iowa State's facilities and grounds-keeping department does not know of any previous otter sightings on Lake LaVerne, according to university spokesperson Angie Hunt.
Vince Evelsizer, a furbearer and wetland biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in Clear Lake, said how often otters can be seen in urban areas depends on variables including the availability of open water, whether people disturb the animals and the availability of food..
It's not unusual for otters to stand out more in the winter because there's only so much open water and their fur is more visible in a snowy landscape without leaves to block the view, Evelsizer said.
He said otters can swim under ice for several minutes, maybe as much as five minutes, and their dense fur keeps them warm.
There's no otter population count for Story County because the animals are "extremely difficult to survey," Evelsizer said. "But we can say that the otter population in Iowa is thriving," with the "highest abundance in the eastern third of the state."
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Phillip Sitter covers education for the Ames Tribune, including Iowa State University and PreK-12 schools in Ames and elsewhere in Story County. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on Twitter @pslifeisabeauty.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Iowa State University's Lake LaVerne becomes rare home to otters
