2013 PVM Report - Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine

(Photo courtesy of Indiana DNR)
PVM River Otter Legacy
Continues
Thanks in part to the work of Purdue Veterinary Medicine
faculty and residents, who helped with an Indiana Department
of Natural Resources (DNR) conservation program, river otter
populations are expanding in Indiana and they now occupy much
of their historic range. Officially considered extirpated from
Indiana by 1942, river otters were absent from the landscape for
more than 50 years, according to the DNR. Then in 1995, wildlife
officials began releasing otters into key areas of the state. Over a
five-year period, 303 otters were transported from Louisiana and
released at 12 sites in northern and southern Indiana.
Under the direction of Dr. Wallace Morrison, professor of
oncology (now retired), a team of PVM veterinarians and
technicians, working with DNR officials and some community
volunteers, examined the otters, which were brought to the
Junior Surgery Room in Lynn Hall. The first group of otters had
telemetry transmitters surgically implanted in their abdomens
to better help DNR officials monitor their survival and dispersal
in the initial release area. The otters received vaccines and blood
was drawn for analysis. Some had minor surgeries and even root
canals to enhance their chances of survival post release.
The work was done on weekends. Some 60 otters were treated
in a single Saturday. The team of faculty members and residents
included Professor of Small Animal Surgery Gary Lantz, Small
Animal Internal Medicine Specialists Catharine Scott-Moncrieff
and Lynn Guptill, PVM Clinical Associate Professor of Wellness
Steve Thompson, and Dr. Karen Cornell, who went on to join the
small animal medicine and surgery faculty at the University of
Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine after her PVM residency.
Professor of Veterinary Pathology Paul Snyder also got involved
and compared clinical laboratory results from blood drawn from
these river otters with equivalent samples that he and then Dean
A river otter undergoes an examination in Lynn Hall.
Al Rebar (PU DVM ‘73) had collected from sea otters affected by
the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Purdue Veterinary Medicine
alumnus and veterinary dental specialist Greg Inskeep (PU DVM
’84) also helped, and fellow alumni Todd Clark (PU DVM ’72)
and Pam Jackson (PU DVM ’93) provided extra dental equipment
from their practice, Creekside Animal Hospital in Lafayette, Ind.
With the help of Dr. Morrison and his team of volunteers, the
river otter reintroduction effort was so successful that by 2005,
otters were removed from the state’s endangered species list. DNR
nongame biologist Scott Johnson says river otters now occupy
more than 80 percent of Indiana counties.
Veterinarian Paul Snyder, PVM professor of veterinary pathology,
utilized data gathered from the river otter project in a study of sea
otters affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
(PVM Archive Photo)
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