At the Occum Dam in Connecticut one audacious otter is taking advantage of fish ladders to get himself a free lunch. Built in 1865 on the Shetucket River, the dam now provides hydroelectric power, and a fish ladder was added in 2005 to provide a route past the dam for migrating herring, shad and trout. It is the monitoring camera at this fish ladder that has caught a daring otter using the narrow passageway as a hunting ground.

Nicknamed ‘Ollie’, the adult otter swims into the fish ladder and waits in one of the pools for fish to come through. Ollie takes advantage of the narrowed space to hunt and catch his dinner, as it’s far easier inside the fish ladder than in the wider space of the fast flowing river. Scientists studying the migration of the fish species through the ladder would rather Ollie didn’t feast until the fish have been counted, but the footage from the monitoring camera has delighted everyone, as it’s rare to see an otter hunting underwater this close up.

Fast Food Fish Ladder

They also know that other otters are using the fish ladder as a fast food outlet (quite literally), waiting upstream for the fish exiting into the reservoir, but so far only one has been cheeky enough to actually swim into the fish ladder itself. He usually comes in for lunch between midnight at 2am, as otters are nocturnal. Unfortunately for Ollie, there aren’t many fish in the ladder at that time of night, but he makes the most of the slim pickings, twisting and turning after his prey and entertaining the staff at the Occum Dam fish ladder. Perhaps next year more will join him when word gets out about that free lunch!