Otter
|
? Otters |
|||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 North American River
Otters
|
|||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
Genera
|
|||||||||||||
|
Amblonyx Aonyx Enhydra Lontra Lutra Lutrogale Pteronura |
Otters are aquatic or marine carnivorous mammals, members of the large and diverse family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, polecats, badgers, and others. There are 13 species of otter in 7 genera, with a distribution that is almost worldwide.
A group of otters is called a romp.
Physical characteristics
Otters have a dense layer (1,000 hairs/mm², 650,000 hairs per sq. in) of very soft underfur which, protected by their outer layer of long guard hairs, keeps them dry under water and traps a layer of air to keep them warm.
All otters have long, slim, streamlined bodies of extraordinary grace and flexibility, and short limbs; in most cases the paws are webbed. Most have sharp claws to grasp prey but the short-clawed otter of southern Asia has just vestigial claws, and two closely related species of African otter have no claws at all: these species live in the often muddy rivers of Africa and Asia and locate their prey by touch.
Diet
Fish is the primary item in the diet of most otters, supplemented by frogs, crayfish, and crabs; some have become expert at opening shellfish, and others will take any small mammals or birds that happen to be available. To survive in the cold waters where many otters live, the specialised fur is not enough: otters have very high metabolic rates and burn up energy at a profligate pace: Eurasian otters, for example, must eat 15% of their body weight a day; sea otters, 20 to 25%, depending on the temperature. In consequence, otters are very vulnerable to prey depletion. In water as warm as 10°C an otter needs to catch 100 g of fish per hour: less than that and it cannot survive. Most species hunt for 3 to 5 hours a day, nursing mothers up to 8 hours a day.
Species
Northern River Otter
The northern river otter (Lontra canadensis) was one of the major animals hunted and trapped for fur in North America after contact with Europeans. They are one of the most playful and active, making them a popular exhibit in zoos and aquaria, but unwelcome on agricultural land because they alter river banks for access, sliding, and defense. River otters eat a variety of fish and shellfish, as well as small land mammals and birds. They are 1 m (3 to 4 feet) in length and weigh from 5 to 15 kg (10 to 30 pounds). They were once found all over North America, but are rare or extinct in most places, although flourishing in some locations.
Otters are a protected species in some areas and some places have otter sanctuaries. These sanctuaries help ill and injured otters to recover.
Sea Otter
The sea otter Enhydra lutris is found along the Pacific coast of North America. Their historic range included shallow waters of the Bering Strait and Kamchatka, and as far south as Japan. Sea otters have some 200,000 hairs per square cm of skin, a rich fur for which they were hunted almost to extinction. By the time they were protected under the 1911 Fur Seal Treaty, there were so few sea otters left that the fur trade had become unprofitable.
Sea otters eat shellfish and other invertebrates (especially clams, abalone, and sea urchins ), and are frequently observed using rocks as crude tools to smash open shells. They are 1 to 2 m (2.5 to 6 feet) in length and weigh 30 kg (25 to 60 pounds). Although once near extinction, they have begun to spread again starting from the California coast.
Unlike most marine mammals ( seals, for example, or whales), sea otters do not have a layer of insulating blubber. As with other species of otter, they rely on air pockets trapped in their fur.
Maxwell's Otter
A sub-species of otter Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli (named 'Maxwell's Otter' after British naturalist Gavin Maxwell and the subject of his book Ring of Bright Water) is thought to have lived in the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh of Iraq. It has been suggested that this may have become extinct as a result of the large scale drainage that has taken place since the 1960s.
European Otter
Otters are also found in Europe. In the United Kingdom they were common as recently as the 1950s, but are now rare due to the former use of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides and as a result of habitat loss. Numbers reached a low point in the 1980s, but with the aid of a number of initiatives, by 1999 numbers were estimated to have recovered to just below 1,000 animals. Under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan it is hoped that by 2010 the otter will have been reintroduced to all the UK rivers and coastal areas that it inhabited in 1960. Roadkill deaths are now one of the significant threats to their reintroduction.
List of species
Genus Lutra
- European Otter (Lutra lutra)
- Hairy-nosed Otter (Lutra sumatrana)
Genus Hydrictis
- Speckle-throated Otter (Hydrictis maculicollis)
Genus Lutrogale
- Smooth-coated Otter (Lutrogale perspicillata)
Genus Lontra
- Northern River Otter (Lontra canadensis)
- Southern River Otter (Lontra provocax)
- Long-tailed Otter (Lontra longicaudis)
- Marine Otter (Lontra felina)
Genus Pteronura
- Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis)
Genus Aonyx
- African Clawless Otter (Aonyx capensis)
- Congo Clawless Otter (Aonyx congicus)
Genus Amblonyx
- Oriental Small-clawed Otter (Amblonyx cinereus)
Genus Enhydra
- Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)