I have a 1.3 acre farm pond which we dug and stocked with fish 4 years ago. 2 weeks ago the dogs found and partially dug up what appeared to be a tunnel at water level. (5" diameter) I thought of muskrat, but my livetrapping efforts have produced nothing. This morning I found a rescently killed 4 lb bass 3 feet from shore. It had bite marks on its back, but was not eaten at all. Could this be an Otter? If yes, I would like it to be somewhere else. Can anyone help? Thanks

River otters will take larger fish out of the water to eat them. And they are known to use farm ponds. However, it is possible that you just have muskrats and that a raccoon found the dead fish on the edge of the pond and dragged it off to chew on it. To determine whether or not you have an otter on the property you should look for tracks near the water's edge. Otters have five toes and the webbing between the toes sometimes shows. Prints of the front paws are roughly 3 inches long and 3 1/4 wide. The hind prints can be 3 to 4 inches long. Tracks will be found in groups of 3 or 4 pairs (because of the way they bound) and the tracks can be up to 30 inches apart. Otter slides on banks are worn smooth and can be up to 1 foot wide. Otter scat is a mass of fish scales, bones, and/or crayfish parts.