Cardiff University Otter Project

27/05/2026

Happy World Otter Day from everyone at CUOP! We want to say a huge thank you to our funders and collection network who make what we do possible. In particular the Environment Agency and Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales who do equally amazing work in England and Wales for otters. From September to April we received 157 otters thanks to the brilliant people supporting our project. and Somerset Otter Group.

30/04/2026

I highly recommend training with Lee Jenkins , these courses will be excellent - Liz Chadwick

🦦 Ever wondered what otters get up to when no one’s watching?

Join us for a half‑day journey into their hidden world with expert ecologist Lee Jenkins, founder of the South Wales Otters Trust.

Across this immersive session, you’ll explore how otters live, feed, travel and shape their freshwater habitats. You’ll learn to spot the subtle signs they leave behind, and then head outdoors to put your new skills into practice.

📅 Dates: 10 May, 13 May, 7 June, 10 June
🕙 10:00–13:30
📍 Llanfoist Village Hall, NP7 9LP

Whether you’re a complete beginner or a keen wildlife enthusiast, this course opens the door to real conservation work, with opportunities to join an otter monitoring programme afterwards.

🦦 Come meet the otters of South Wales - and the people protecting them

Sign up here: https://mammal.org.uk/events

Photo credit: Will Strange

29/04/2026

24/04/2026

🦦🦔🐿️🦫🦨🦇
Celebrate National Mammal Week with CUOP for all the incredible wild mammals in UK!🎉

20/04/2026

Otter #4801 is a juvenile found dead near Oxford. The otter was estimated to be approximately 2 months old, but lacked any development of hind limbs or pelvis. We are exploring next steps to investigate the potential cause, which is most likely to be a genetic abnormality, but could potentially be teratogenic chemicals. If there have been any other sightings of mammals with no hind limbs in the UK, we would love it if you could get in contact with us!

02/04/2026

Welcome our new placement student for April -- Tim Trautner!!🎉🦦

27/03/2026

On the 16th February Cardiff University Otter Project held a stall at the 'Be A Scientist' event in Sbarc|Spark. It was wonderful to meet some young aspiring scientists and introduce them to the Otter Project! 🦦

24/03/2026

Our new paper on mitogenome sequences from otter spraint, with Sarah and Jenny as joint first authors, has been featured in an article by phys.org!
Read the article here:
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-approach-dna-otters-disturbing.html

The original research paper that the press report is based on can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.251299

18/03/2026

Introducing our newest member Solveig! She is a vet student from France here to learn about what we do and conduct a research project. 🦦

10/03/2026

🚨New paper out
Recovering whole mitogenome sequences from Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) spraint samples: a metagenomic approach https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.251299

Ever found an otter🦦 spraint 💩 (faeces) along a river and wondered what information is locked in there? 🔒 Otters are still extremely elusive in Wales, so we wanted to test out a non-invasive survey method. Sequencing DNA 🧬 from spraint samples works well!

The paper was led by former PhD student (now Dr!) Sarah du Plessis, together with former Masters (now PhD) student Jenny Smith, supervised by Frank Hailer and Elizabeth Chadwick. [Photos: Jenny sampling otter spraint along the river Usk in Wales]

In our paper, we use a modern genetic technique called ‘metagenomic shotgun sequencing’ (you can read more about this technique here: https://eu.idtdna.com/pages/applications/infectious-disease/shotgun-metagenomics-for-infectious-diseases) to characterise the whole mitochondrial genomes (mitogenome) of the otters who left these spraints behind, as well as the fungal 🍄 and bacterial 🦠 diversity.

Mitochondrial haplotypes are clusters of inherited genetic variation in mitochondrial DNA, passed down via the maternal line. These haplotypes are particularly useful for tracing ancestry and understanding evolutionary history. We didn’t find any new mitochondrial haplotypes (see https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/haplotype for an explanation on what haplotypes are) but improved our understanding of the geographic distribution of the known otter haplotypes in Wales.

Our method seemed to work better in spring 🌤️ than winter ❄️, and for fresh (