UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



ZOOLOGY 



Vol. 12, No. 8, pp. 305-310, plate 14 October 31, 1914 



DISTRIBUTION OF RIVER OTTERS IN 

 CALIFORNIA, 



WITH DESCRIPTION OP A NEW SUBSPECIES 



JOSEPH GRIXNELL 

 (Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California) 



River otters (genus Lutva) are still known to occur at irregular 

 intervals in the streams of northern and central California. The 

 southernmost ascertained point of occurrence in the coast belt is a 

 creek flowing into one of the heads of Drake Bay, near Point Reyes. 

 Marin County. In the great Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley there 

 are definite reports of otters from various streams and sloughs south 

 as far as near Lane Bridge, north of Fresno, in that portion of the 

 San Joaquin River forming the boundary between Fresno and 

 Madera counties. There are rumors of occurrence still farther south, 

 namely in certain streams making down from the high southern 

 Sierra Nevada; but there is as yet no acceptably authenticated 

 instance. There are no records at hand from the coast belt south of 

 San Francisco Bay and none from the San Diegan district. 



Otters are stated to be "occasionally caught in the Colorado River," 

 along the southeastern border of California (Stephens, 1906, p. 234). 

 The writer just cited refers to the Colorado River animal under the 

 name Lutra canadensis sonora Rhoads, apparently assuming its 

 identity with the form described from a tributary of the Gila River, 

 in Yavapai County, Arizona. This assumption is probably correct, 

 and the form sonora should not have been omitted, as it was, from 

 my distributional list of the mammals of California (Grinned. 1913, 

 p. 297). However, I am unable at this time to add any corroborative 



