Identification

Title

England Otter Survey Database

Abstract

As part of a scheme to monitor the distribution of otters throughout the UK, four England otter survey have been carried out covering the years 1977-79, 1984-85 and 1991-94, and 2000-02. In the first national survey, alternate 50-km squares - the north-west and the south-east quarters of each 100-km square - of the National Grid were surveyed to geographically represent cover of all regions (giving a total of 2940 in the first survey). The second survey (funded by The Vincent Wildlife Trust) in 1984-86 added four more 50-km squares (that were deemed unlikely to have otters in the first survey) giving a total of 3189 sites, all of which were re-surveyed in 1991-94 (The Vincent Wildlife Trust). In the 2000-02 (The Environment Agency) surveyed all alternate 50-km squares in England were surveyed, making the total of 38 50-km (and partial) squares and 3327 sites. Sites were selected by accessibility and likelihood of finding signs of otter activity - typically road bridges and the confluences of watercourses. The number of sites visited per square varied. The number of spraints and presence of mink was also recorded. There are also Otter Survey databases for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland following the same protocol at differing resolutions.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://registry.nbnatlas.org/public/show/dr494

name: dr494

Unique resource identifier

code

016a246b-6c33-4847-8306-be03c4d08a6b

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

biota

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Freshwater

Terrestrial

UK Biodiversity

England

Mink

Otter

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-6.0

East bounding longitude

2.0

North bounding latitude

56.0

South bounding latitude

49.76

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1977

End position

2002

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2004-11-16

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Four surveys were conducted at the 50km square level following a standard protocol. This protocol was to search up to 600m of one bank of a water body from a starting point (grid referenced), either all in one direction or split between two directions. Searching stopped as soon as signs of activity were noted in the 1977-79 and 2000-02 surveys, the full 600m being surveyed in the intervening surveys.

Conformity

Data format

name of format

Comma Separated Values

version of format

Unknown

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Released under the Open Government Licence v3.0

Limitations on public access

No limitations

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

distributor

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2018-05-17

Metadata language