Otters return to upper Rio Grande A native has returned home after nearly 60 years. Five river otters – a species once found in streams and rivers throughout New Mexico – were released Tuesday on Taos Pueblo in the water of the Rio Pueblo de Taos. The otters were trapped in Washington state under a reintroduction program that involves the pueblo, the state Department of Game and Fish, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the New Mexico Friends of River Otters, a coalition of citizens, agencies and conservation groups dedicated to bringing otters back to New Mexico. River otters – highly social, playful, semi-aquatic members of the weasel family – are believed to have once inhabited the Gila, upper and middle Rio Grande, Mora, San Juan and Canadian river systems. They were occasionally mentioned in the journals of early settlers, but there have been no confirmed sightings of river otters in the state since 1953. Their disappearance was blamed largely on decades of trapping and habitat loss. A larger release of otters is scheduled on the Upper Rio Grande in November....