California Department Fish and Wildlife 20180412 vector digital data https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS ftp://ftp.wildlife.ca.gov/BDB/GIS/BIOS/Public_Datasets/800_899/ds813.zip In California, River Otters (Lontra canadensis) are most commonly associated with food-rich lowland aquatic habitats where they forage primarily on fish and crustaceans. Their distribution in high-elevation montane regions of the state, areas in which fish and crayfish were absent historically, is largely unknown. We compiled occurrence records of River Otters in California from elevations >1100 m, and evaluated them using evidentiary standards. Based on 126 records, we report the widespread presence of River Otters in the Klamath, southern Cascades, and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, including at elevations exceeding 3000 m. Sixty-three percent of the records met our definition as ''verified'', and the remaining 37% were considered ''unverified''. The distribution of observations through time and habitats in which observations were made were similar between verified and unverified records. River Otter records spanned the period from 1900 to 2017, with 50% occurring between 1991 and 2010. Ninety-three percent of the water bodies with records of River Otters contained nonnative prey (fish and crayfish). Those lacking nonnative prey all supported native prey, including amphibians and reptiles. Based on records that contained River Otter foraging observations, nonnative fishes and crayfish were represented in 89% of the total accounts, and native frogs and invertebrates were represented in 22%. It remains unclear whether River Otters occurred in California's high-elevation water bodies prior to the introduction of fish and crayfish, and additional research is needed to understand the possible influence of nonnative prey in allowing River Otters to expand their distribution in these habitats. The primary objective of this study was to use historical and current records to describe the distribution of River Otters in 3 high-elevation mountain ranges of California: Klamath Mountains, Southern Cascades, and Sierra Nevada. For additional information a full report can be found here: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=64278 19280101 20170601 publication date In work As needed -123.180704 -118.004135 41.621532 36.779441 ISO 19115 Topic Category biota, Mammal, sn: Lontra canadensis, cn: River Otter None Southern Cascades Sierra Nevada Klamath Mountains California None None California Department Fish and Wildlife Justin Garwood Environmental Scientist ~Aquatic mailing and physical

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Arcata CA 95521 (707) 825-4723 Justin.Garwood@wildlife.ca.gov California Department Fish and Wildlife Justin Garwood Environmental Scientist ~Aquatic (707) 825-4723 Justin.Garwood@wildlife.ca.gov Microsoft Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcGIS 10.5.1.7333 Vector Entity point 81 NAD 1983 California Teale Albers 34.0 40.5 -120.0 0.0 0.0 -4000000.0 coordinate pair 0.000000003754707655900803 0.000000003754707655900803 meter D North American 1983 GRS 1980 6378137.0 298.257222101 ds813 River Otters in High Mountain Lakes [ds813] OBJECTID Internal feature number. Esri Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. Timeframe The month or range of months during which the site way surveyed. Year The year during which the survey was conducted. Rank Ranks the reliability of each River otter occurrence record. Records were then grouped into 2 categories based on the reliability criteria: categories 1 to 3 were considered verified (highly reliable), and categories 4 to 6 were considered unverified (less reliable). See Garwood et al. 2013 for more detail. 1 River Otter specimen or diagnostic photograph 2 Detailed River Otter sighting by an experienced observer, including tracks, scat, or slides (i.e., track down embankment to waterway). 3 Detailed River Otter sighting by an observer with limited qualifications who was subsequently interviewed by an expert resulting in diagnostic characteristics. 4 detailed River Otter sighting by observer with unknown qualifications. 5 River Otter sighting without any description. 6 Observation of tracks, scat, or slides (but lacking diagnostic photographs) by observer with unknown qualifications. Elevation_m Elevation in meters where the otter was found UTME UTM east UTMN UTM north Otters_Found Number of otters found Lat Latitude Long Longitude Site_Name A unique name used to identify the survey site within a region. Waterbody The type of water feature associated with the survey site; stream, lake, reservoir or marsh. Region The geographic region surveyed; Sierra, Cascades or Klamath. Source The source of the observation data. CDFW California Department of Fish and Wildlife Garwood et al. 2013 Use of Historically Fishless High-Mountain Lakes and Streams by Nearactic River Otters (Lontra Canadensis) in California, Justin Garwood et al. Northwestern Naturalist, 94:51-66. LVNP Records Lassen Volcanic National Park records. Russell 1928 A new mammal for Yosemite. Yosemite Nature Notes, Russell C.P. 1928 Schempf 1977 Status of six furbearer populations in the mountains of northern California. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, San Francisco, CA., Schempf P.F. and White M. 1977. UC Davis University of California, Davis USFS United States Fish and Wildlife Service Whitney 1939 California River Otter in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Nature Notes, Whitney G. 1939. YNP Records Yosemite National Park records DATUM Datum 20180430 California Department Fish and Wildlife Justin Garwood Environmental Scientist ~Aquatic (707) 825-4723 Justin.Garwood@wildlife.ca.gov FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time