Five river otters are showing up regularly at the south end of the Egans Creek Greenway, a return after years of near-absence on Amelia Island.

Zoologist Pat Foster-Turley, a Fernandina Beach resident who formerly chaired the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Otter Specialist Group, reported the sightings Friday, Sept. 11, in her "Pat's Wildways" column. She described the group as likely a mother with nearly grown offspring, based on size differences among the five animals.

Bill Birdsong, who walks or bikes the greenway almost daily with his wife Susie, photographed the otters and provided the first documentation of the group.

"I had just about given up on seeing otters here any longer," Foster-Turley wrote.

Over her 25 years on Amelia Island, Foster-Turley wrote, otter sightings that were once common on the greenway and in neighborhood retention ponds had "virtually stopped." She pointed to two forces behind the decline.

Toxins collect in retention ponds from paved and landscaped surroundings, making the fish unsafe for otters to eat. Habitat loss from home construction and brush clearing also cuts off the miles-long corridors otters need to find mates.

In earlier years, Foster-Turley regularly watched otters visit the retention pond behind her home and named one group the "Three Musketeers." At least one female raised cubs on the greenway over several years.

A single otter has also been visiting the retention pond at Foster-Turley's home. Her landscaper spotted it independently, and she noted a worn "slide" where the animal enters the water.

The five greenway otters may not stay. Foster-Turley wrote that no young cubs have been reported and the nearly grown young will soon leave their mother to find their own mates and territory.

The Fernandina Beach City Commission voted 4-0 on Sept. 2 to authorize up to $240,000 to purchase five properties totaling about 28 acres to expand the greenway. Commissioner Joyce Tuten endorsed the purchase at that meeting.

"How will this island still function as a place to live 200 years from now? … It won't if we don't do some major land conservation," Tuten said, as the Fernandina Observer reported.

Residents who spot an otter can email Foster-Turley at [email protected] with the time, location, number of animals and any other details. Sightings can also be reported statewide through the Florida Otter Spotters program run by the Blue World Research Institute, a Cocoa-based nonprofit that coordinates citizen scientists tracking North American river otters across Florida.