River otter predation of nesting seabirds along the coasts of North America

River otter (Lontra canadensis) predation of seabirds has been periodically documented throughout North America, but most knowledge about this subject exists as anecdotal observations in the memories of experienced seabird biologists. Using surveys, interviews, white papers, and published literature, we collected detailed records of seabird predation by river otters at 73 islands on the coasts of North America. From this dataset, we were able to conclude the seabird species experiencing river otter predation, the geographic distribution of predation records, and factors associated with river otter occurrence at colony islands. River otters preferentially select for small-bodied burrow-nesting species, with predation of ground-nesting species occurring mostly opportunistically. Predation of nesting seabirds occurs across the entire Pacific range of the river otter and throughout the northern Atlantic, but we did not locate a single record of this behavior on the Atlantic coast south of M..., , # Data from: River otter predation of nesting seabirds along the coasts of North America

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.gxd2547zv](10.5061/dryad.gxd2547zv)

## Description of the data and file structure

Anecdotal data on seabird predation by river otters at colony islands throughout the United States and Canada were collected through surveys of biologists, review of white papers, and scraping of published literature. These records are accompanied in this dataset by geographic information for seabird colony islands and biological information for nesting seabird species.

### Files and variables

#### File: anecdotal_present_nopredation.csv

**Description:** This tabular dataset indicates anecdotal records of seabird islands where river otters have been observed, but predation of nesting seabirds has not been observed. Records in this dataset come from direct communication/interview of seabird biologists and from white papers.

##### Variables

* island_name: Common name of the island for ...,