River otter at the ice shelf, Big Stone NWR, Minnesota (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

2 January 2026

December was snowier than expected and the New Year started with a line storm of blowing heavy snow that quickly ripped across Pennsylvania in the wee hours of New Years Day.

Snowfall always makes travel difficult, except perhaps for river otters who move faster than usual by sliding in the snow. Their tracks look odd until you know what they’re doing.

River otter step-and-slide tracks in snow, Seedskadee NWR (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Run, slide, run, slide.

This technique was especially useful when two otters escaped a zoo last winter. Here’s a description of the video that follows.

Mar 26, 2025, Two river otters, Louie and Ophelia, weaseled their way out of their Wisconsin zoo enclosure last week during a winter storm, appearing on security camera footage cavorting across the snow, as the search continued Tuesday. The NEW Zoo & Adventure Park said the two North American river otters escaped through a small hole that they enlarged in a buried fence, and their flight was quickly noticed by zookeepers on their morning rounds. (Video provided by NEW Zoo & Adventure Park via Associated Press)

River otter rapid transit!