IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin
© IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group

Volume 16 Issue 1 Pages 1- 57 (April 1999)

Note from the Editor
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I have learnt, from several letters and e-mails, that there have been problems with the postage for the last issue. Although it was promised to me that all envelopes would arrive within 7-12 days, many of them, if not all, reached the overseas destinations after around 2 months. I apologise for any inconvenience. My special thanks go to Roel Hoeve, who organised the postage of a great part of the last issue.

I am very grateful that Marcela Kucerova from the Czech Otter Foundation Fund in Trebon organised the funding of this issue! Marcela thanks a lot! Many thanks to all who either contributed to the costs of printing and postage, or who at least sent back the leaflet. I have to state that I am astonished at the low percentage of leaflets returned (approx. 50%). Obviously, many people on the mailing list are not interested anymore. This copy is therefore being sent only to those who either responded, with respect to the leaflet, or who contributed or reviewed a manuscript during the time of my editorship.

There has been some confusion on how to pay the voluntary contribution to the Bulletin. At the time when I wrote the leaflet, the exchange rate of the US$ and the Euro was not known, so I had to guess. This is the reason for the difference between the amount in US$ and Euro’s. On the other hand, VISA Austria will only accept payments in Austrian Schillings (ATS) until 2001. This is why I wrote about US$ and Euro’s in the text, but used ATS on the form. I calculated all amounts given on the form in ATS using the official bank rates.
In issue 15/2, the last pages where printed in a smaller layout and the list of recent references was missing. The reason for that was the weight limit of 100 grammes for the Bulletin set by the post office (corresponding to 56 pages), otherwise, the postage costs would be double. I had to make a quick decision at the printers in February to overcome several weeks of extra delay. I am sorry for the small letter size and the missing references. In this issue, you will find the list of references again, including the ones skipped from the last issue.

Please keep in mind that manuscripts should be submitted in an electronic format, which saves a lot of time for me. All manuscripts should have an abstract, as it is very complicated for Alvaro to compile a Spanish abstract when the author gives no English abstract! I received several positive comments on the fact that Spanish abstracts are included. Many thanks to Alvaro, for the Spanish abstracts, and to Kevin, for reading the manuscripts.

I have to thank the ‘Otter Bulletin Team’, Barbara Gutleb-Rainer (Oosterbeek), Hans van den Berg (Wageningen), and Els Hoogsteede-Veens (GRAFISCH SERVICE CENTRUM VAN GILS, Wageningen) for their continuing help. Once again Tobias did all the work with the envelopes in conjunction with his younger co-worker Helena.

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