European otter populations have recovered significantly following water quality improvements. This welfare success story illustrates how policy change can improve lives for wildlife at scale.
Otter recovery represents one of the great wildlife welfare conservation successes in Britain. The restoration of a charismatic apex predator to its former range has improved individual otter welfare through access to appropriate habitat and prey, and population welfare through viable breeding populations across the country. Ongoing threats including road mortality and occasional drowning in fish traps continue to cause individual welfare impacts. The otter recovery story provides an inspiring model for evidence-based wildlife welfare advocacy: identifying causal factors, removing them through policy change, and monitoring recovery.