EDP Foz Tua Otter (Lutra lutra) - Ecological Monitoring Program (2010-11)

Study Extent

The data were collected in the river Tua sub-basin in the municipalities of Carrazeda de Ansiães, Alijó, Murça and Mirandela.

Sampling

Sampling was designed to cover the course of the lower river Tua and its main tributaries, from the mouth up to the northern limit of the Foz-Tua dam. Twelve sampling plots were setup in this area. In each sampling point, a transect up to 600 m was performed along the margins, looking for signs of presence (mostly scats) in suitable places (prominent stones and vegetation in the margins of the water line). The transect was interrupted when the presence of the otter was detected, but never before 200 m. Each plot was visited once in November 2010 and once in March 2011, in dry or light rain periods, to minimize the chance of lexiviation of the feacal material. The scats were identified "in loco" by expert researchers. Only presence/absence information was retained.

Quality Control

All identifications were performed by qualified technicians

Method steps

1. To be completed

The taxonomic coverage of this dataset spans 1 phylum, 1 class, 1 order, 1 family, 1 genus and 1 species.

1. Chordata
   rank: phylum
2. Mammalia
   rank: class
3. Carnivora
   rank: order
4. Mustelidae
   rank: family

The data were collected in selected sampling points in the River Tua sub-basin (Northeast Portugal), along the whole course of river Tua and its main tributaries, in the municipalities of Carrazeda de Ansiães, Alijó, Murça and Mirandela.