Otter

The northern river otter (Lontra canadensis) became one of the major animals hunted and trapped for fur in North America after European contact. As one of the most playful and active species of otter, they have become 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 grow to 1 m (3 to 4 feet) in length and weigh from 5 to 15 kg (10 to 30 pounds). Once found all over North America, they have become rare or extinct in most places, although flourishing in some locations.

Some jurisdictions have made otters a protected species in some areas, and some places have otter sanctuaries. These sanctuaries help ill and injured otters to recover.

Sea Otter

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) live 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 humans hunted them almost to extinction. By the time the 1911 Fur Seal Treaty gave them protection, so few sea otters remained that the fur trade had become unprofitable.

Sea otters eat shellfish and other invertebrates (especially clams, abalone, and sea urchins ), and one can frequently observe them using rocks as crude tools to smash open shells. They grow to 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

Zoologists believe that a sub-species of otter Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli (named 'Maxwell's Otter' after the British naturalist Gavin Maxwell and the subject of his book Ring of Bright Water) lived in the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh of Iraq. Some have suggested that this sub-species may have become extinct as a result of the large-scale drainage that has taken place in the region since the 1960s.

European Otter

European otter

Otters also inhabit in Europe. In the United Kingdom they occurred commonly as recently as the 1950s, but have now become 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 estimated numbers indicated a recovery to just below 1,000 animals. The UK Biodiversity Action Plan envisages the re-introduction of otters by 2010 to all the UK rivers and coastal areas that they inhabited in 1960. Roadkill deaths have become one of the significant threats to the success of their re-introduction.

Otters in mythology

Norse mythology tells of the dwarf Ã"tr habitually taking the form of an otter. (Note that the Old Icelandic word otr means "otter"; these and cognate words in other Indo-European languages ultimately stem from a root which apparently also gave rise to the English words "water", "wet" and "winter".)

Otters in literature

Otters appear very commonly in Brian Jacques's Redwall series.

Note also:
* Henry Williamson's story Tarka the Otter
* Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows
* M. I. McAllister's The Mistmantle Chronicles

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)

External links

*The Otter Trust
*International Otter Survival Fund
*Otternet
*Otter - photos
*North American River Otter
*[http://www.ottersinsomerset.piczo.com Otters In Somerset