Our charity: Stichting Otterstation Nederland
Help the charity by bidding on great art at our charity auction
Note: Addy de Jongh will unfortunately not be able to attend: He’s visiting the otters in Norway. He’ll give his talk remotely, and his colleague Hans Blom will attend in his place.
Founded in 1985, Stichting Otterstation Nederland successfully reintroduced the otter to the Netherlands after it had become locally extinct. They’ve grown the population from zero to about 600 today through three strategies:
- Restoring and enlarging wetlands, the habitat of otters;
- Providing safe passages under roads; and
- Improving and managing water quality.
Founder Addy de Jongh became fascinated with otters during his biology studies at the University of Groningen. In addition to leading SON, he’s the national representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature‘s Otter Specialist Group; supervises BSc, MSc and PhD students at home and abroad; and gives lectures and presentations on the otter around the world. For this work, he was knighted in 2010.
He contacted Stichting Otterdam while searching for Dutch otter-related things online and quickly became enthusiastic about the furry fandom. We’re very enthusiastic about his good work and are proud to support it at the Otterdam Furry Arts Festival. Aside from giving a talk on Saturday, he’ll be available in the Artist’s Alley to discuss his work, accept donations, and just share his love of otters.
