Why Did the Otter Cross the Road? – Second Reflector Installation

Just like the chicken, it wanted to get to the other side!

Otters need to cross the roads which lie between the feeding area on the shore, and the places where they rest and get fresh water which are further inland. We wish they would wait until it’s safe to cross the road, or always use the convenient tunnels a.k.a. culverts. But until someone figures out how to teach otters about road saftey we have to think of other methods.

So Mull Otter Group have been working up a sweat again.  On Sunday 27th November a small group of us installed a set of reflectors at the side of the road near Pennygown. This is the second set for Mull, and the second in the area, which is a hot spot for otter road fatalities.

Roadside reflectors Pennygown, Mull
Roadside reflectors Pennygown, Mull

The reflectors angle the light from car headlights into the verge, where any otter considering crossing the road will hopefully wait until it’s safer to cross. This is part of our trial on Mull, but it has proved successful on Skye.  We hope it will be successful on Mull.

True to form, MOG folk used this as an excuse to eat cake, but I suppose we’d burned off a few calories!

MOG folk eating cake again
MOG folk eating cake again