The recovery of the Eurasian otter in UK rivers since the 1970s is one of British conservation greatest successes, demonstrating how pollution reduction and legal protection can restore top predators with significant welfare benefits.
Otter recovery demonstrates that conservation policy can deliver genuine welfare benefits for wild animals at population scale. Otters living in clean, productive rivers with abundant prey and undisturbed holts have access to the resources they need for good welfare. The chronic welfare harm of living in a polluted river — reduced prey availability, contamination of food and water, reproductive failure — has been substantially reduced by pollution control. Ongoing welfare challenges include road mortality where rivers pass under busy roads, illegal persecution and habitat disturbance from human recreational use. Otter welfare monitoring using spraints and population surveys provides data that informs both conservation and welfare assessment.