But Dennis Solon, manager of the Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area, was one of the lovers of wildlife employed by the state who helped bring river otters back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Wildlife staff have been encouraged to find otters that have taken up permanent residence in places far away from the original release sites, like the Maumee River in Northwest Ohio and the Ohio River near Cincinnati in the southwest. Unlike otters on the East and West coasts, river otters in Ohio are not very social, she said.