The life (and dissection) of an otter

I need to place a disclaimer on this post. If seeing dead animals get cut open is gross to you... i suggest you do not scroll down. Thanks!


So, Dave (grad student) was driving home from Sedro-Woolley one day and saw a dead otter on the side of the road. He kept on driving, yet was very intrigued by said otter. He decided later on that day to return to the side of the road, collect the otter, bring it back to the ELC and dissect it. Somehow, if you're in my program, this train of thought seems slightly normal. slightly.

So, the Otter remained in the ELC freezer for a few months as Dave filled out the necessary paperwork with the Fish & Wildlife Department so he could open up the Otter. Daves original priority was to use the pelt for future education with the kids. Clint (another grad student) wanted to get involved and have someone take photos of the process, and then he wanted to draw various parts of the otter. Clint is an AMAZING artist, and his work is similar to those you see in science journals or flower identification guides, so this all kinda made sense. kinda.

On Thursday afternoon, the word is out that at 2pm, the otter dissection would begin... so, due to pure human curiosity I had to go. Usually, I do not have a stomach for any of this, but somehow I was able to watch part of it, or duck behind people when I wasn't willing to watch. Seeing the skin get pulled off an animal was just a little too much for me. So, I present you with photos and a slight dialogue with each. Once again, there is blood and dead otter involved, so you might not want to scroll down.

The otter. Somehow at this stage, it just seemed like a frozen stuffed animal, so I could hang out and joke around. no big deal... right?

Okay... this is where it starts getting questionable. Dave begins cutting in with the equivalent of a pumpkin carving knife. A waft of death & musk enters the room once the body is opened up. Previously someone mentioned that Otters do not have musk glands... we found that they were incorrect.

More of the skin being removed from the otter and the internal cavity being shown. You could see where the trauma occurred from the car hitting the otter.

Shelby & Dave begin peeling the skin off of the otter. Everything on the pelt was intact since they were able to pull it off like the casing on sausage. EW

this is where I checked out and started taking photos of other things in the room... like the green of Codi's beanie, or the floor. I left promptly after this photo since they had just taken out the heart, liver & kidney.

I was only there for the first 1.5 hours, but I believe the full dissection continued for another 4 hours. I know this whole thing might seem incredibly bizarre, but it is interesting having this kind of opportunity to look at an animal so closely and try to understand its life more clearly. We were able to make observations you might not take the time to make if you see something like this in the museum such as: Wow, its paws are webbed and his claws are quite long. Hmm, it's really difficult to figure out its gender, I wonder why that is? or The tail is incredibly muscular, i didn't realize otters relied on their tails so much.

I do know that Clint & Dave are planning on writing a blog for the institute to include Clints drawings and I will put up a link once that is posted. You can also keep your eye out since it will be on the right hand panel of my blog under "Chattermarks"