IT is amazing what you can learn from a footprint…

Over the last few months, the Lake District Wildlife Park has been helping researchers from the UK, Germany and the US to find out if otter species can be identified by their footprints using a novel Footprint Identification Technology (FIT) developed by WildTrack.

The Asian small-clawed otters at the Park, Amber and Koji, have been very forthcoming in providing footprints!

The Keepers at the Park were also more than happy to help with the project, which sounded quite straightforward.

All that was required was to collect photographs and forward the data to WildTrack.

To obtain the footprints, two large patches of sand were placed in the otter enclosure. One was on a path that they use regularly, and the other was outside their house.

At first the Keepers thought that the otters may be a bit wary of the sand and want to investigate it.

News and Star: OTTERLY CUTE: The two Park residents helping the scientists with their researchOTTERLY CUTE: The two Park residents helping the scientists with their research

However, they had no need to worry about this, as Amber and Koji walked and ran through it without any hesitation. This made some of the individual footprints a bit puzzling to work out! Fortunately, there was also some very clear ones which were perfect.

The research project is lead by Frederick Kistner from the Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and Larissa Slaney from WildTrack.

Larissa visited the Lake District Wildlife Park earlier this year to introduce her project and provide more information.

There are four otter species with an overlapping distribution range in Asia: the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), the small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), the smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) and the hairy-nosed otter (Lutra sumatrana).

All species have an International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protection status, with the hairy-nosed otters being the most endangered species of the four.

News and Star: SCIENCE: Measuring the otters' footprintsSCIENCE: Measuring the otters' footprints

In order to protect animals and reduce human-wildlife conflict, it is important to have reliable information about the distribution - and ideally also the size - of the species’ population.

This information, however, is often hard to obtain for elusive animals like the above-mentioned otter species.

Previous studies have shown that footprint analysis to distinguish between species is possible.

If also possible for these otter species, this would provide a non-invasive method to assess otter populations in the wild and help develop conservation policies.

News and Star: RESIDENTS: The Park's Asian small-clawed otters, Amber and KojiRESIDENTS: The Park's Asian small-clawed otters, Amber and Koji (Image: Lake District Wildlife Park)

Amber and Koji have played an important part in this project by providing their footprints. Every bit of data is important and will hopefully help to protect their cousins in the wild.

If you visit their enclosure, you might see the sand patches used to collect their footprint images and maybe you will even catch them at work!