66 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
The otter is a fighter. One day I came upon 
records in the snow far from the water that 
showed he had walked into a wild-cat ambush. 
The extensively trampled snow told that the 
desperate contest had been a long one. The 
cat was left dead, and the otter had left two 
pressed and bloody spaces in the snow where he 
had stopped to dress his wounds on the way 
to the river. On another occasion the fierceness 
of the otter was attested to by two coyotes that 
nearly ran over me in their flight after an as- 
sault on the rear guard of a band of overland 
otter emigrants. 
Probably the only animal that enters a beaver 
pond that gives the beaver any concern is the 
otter. One morning I had glimpses of a battle 
in a beaver pond between a large invading otter 
and numerous home-defense beavers. Most 
of the fighting was under water, but the pond 
was roiled and agitated over a long stretch, be- 
ginning where the attack commenced and ex- 
tending to the incoming brook, where the 
badly wounded otter made his escape. 
Both beaver and otter can remain under 
water for minutes, and during this time put forth 
their utmost and most effective efforts. Several 
times during this struggle the contestants came 
up where they could breathe. Twice when the 
otter appeared he was at it with one large bea- 
