528 
cally for their own counties and most of 
their answers showed close grouping near 
the Ohio, Wabash and Mississippi rivers 
in southern Illinois, where Forbes con- 
cluded otters were still common. 
Since 1912, the record is one of rapidly 
receding range and, at least until the last 
half dozen years, of continuous failure to 
check their decline, even after legal pro- 
tection was extended them throughout 
the year. 
According to an unpublished manuscript 
by Leopold (1929), an otter was taken 
near Meredosia, on the Illinois River, in 
1926, and a few otters were present in 
Union County in 1929. Bennitt & Nagel 
(1937) recorded two otters in 1934 from 
the Mississippi River in Lincoln County, 
Mo., opposite Calhoun County, Ill., and 
sha gas WINNEBAGO [i HENRY = 
Na aaa 
Jon 
DEKALB fa 
Ey 
= ab earn 
igh ia 
sae 
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ies 
ee 12 
VERMILION 
she: 
(te AS ie 
war We CLARK 
A EE 
ae JASPER 
Soa 
CLAY 
RICHLD 
ce 1912 iia [stay 
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1939 
ts ae ay 
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Fig. 19.—Recent specific records of otter in 
Illinois. Dates show counties in which otters 
were reported for the year indicated. Cir- 
cles show nearby Missouri records. Dates east 
of Illinois indicate nearby otter records in 
Indiana. 
Ittino1is NATURAL History SURVEY BULLETIN 
V ol. 22, Arta 
others in 1935 in Missouri opposite Alex- 
ander County, IIl., fig. 19. Scott (1937) 
did not report any recent records on the 
Mississippi River in lowa. 
During the spring of 1939 an otter 
was accidentally caught in a fish net in 
the Little Wabash River in Wayne Coun- 
ty by Harold Riggs of Goldengate, Ill. 
(Anonymous 1939). 
According to a letter dated Jan. 26) 
1939, from Galen W. Pike of the U. S. 
Forest Service at Harrisburg, III., several 
otters were reported in Saline County, 
and an otter was seen in 1935 by William 
E. Bates at Big Lake, 2 miles northeast 
of Shawneetown, in Gallatin County. 
Residents of Union and Alexander coun- 
ties still report otters occasionally, and it 
is hoped that the Shawnee National For- 
est in these southern counties, rising pub- 
lic interest and extended soil conservation 
practices will enable Illinois otters to sur- 
vive and perhaps increase and spread. In 
recent estimates of the numbers of fur- 
bearing animals on the National Forests 
(U. S. Forest Service 1937, 1938), otters 
are not listed as being present in Illinois, 
probably because they are difficult to lo- 
cate or extremely rare. Lyon (1936) 
found the general pattern of otter decline 
in Indiana similar to that in Illinois. 
Most of the recent dates for otter records 
in Indiana are in those counties bordering 
the Ohio and White rivers near Illinois; 
some of these dates are shown in fig. 19. 
Bonnell (1941) reported 20 otters pres- 
‘ent in the Shawnee National Forest in 
southern Illinois in 1940. Some natural- 
ists and rangers there are inclined to feel 
that this estimate is too large. 
COYOTE 
Wolves are often claimed to occur in 
Illinois; this common name is generally 
applied to coyotes, known also as brush 
wolves or prairie wolves, and sometimes 
to wild dogs. We have no reliable evi- 
dence that timber wolves are present with- 
in the boundaries of Illinois or that they 
have been during the present century, 
although Wood (1910) states: “During 
the years 1883 to 1905 inclusive, bounties 
were paid on 159 wolves killed in Cham- 
paign county. Wolves have been reported 
within the county since that date, and it 
is not at all unlikely that a few still exist 
