Otter

The otter definition says that an otter animal is a semi-aquatic fish-eating mammal belonging to the weasel family, with an extended body, dense fur, and webbed feet.

Also, an otter is a carnivore (or a freshwater carnivorous musteline mammal) that has a binomial name of Lutrinae, where  Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also incorporates mink, weasels, badgers, and wolverines, among other animals. The 13 surviving species are all semi aquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets relying on fish and invertebrates. 

As per the otter etymology, the word otter is derived from the Old English word otor or oter. This, and related words in other Indo-European dialects, eventually come from the Proto-Indo-European language root *wódr̥, which additionally led to the English word "water.”

An otter is a mammal that can be of various types, like a sea otter, giant otter, river otter, and baby otter. All these species types have got a specific otter terminology, significance, otter habitat, life cycle, taxonomic tree, scientific classification, and otter lifespan, which we will discuss on this page along with the amazing otter facts.

Otter Terminology

From the above text, we understood what is an otter animal, now, let’s go through its terminology.

The den of an otter is called a holt or couch. Male otters are also called dogs or boars, while females are called bitches or sows, however, their offspring are called pups. 

Besides this, the collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge, romp; this name is descriptive of their often playful nature when in water, raft.

The feces of otters are basically recognized by their distinctive aroma, the smell of which has been described as ranging from freshly mown hay to putrefied fish; these are called spraints.

Now, let’s go through the scientific classification followed by the lower otter classification.

Otter Scientific Classification 

The below table illustrates the otter level of scientific classification:

Otter Animal Physical Description

Otters have long, thin bodies and moderately short appendages. Their most striking anatomical highlights are the amazing webbed feet used to swim, and their seal-like capacities holding breath submerged. Most have sharp paws on their feet and all aside from the sea otter have long, strong tails. The 13 species range in grown-up size from 0.6 to 1.8 m (2.0 to 5.9 ft) long and 1 to 45 kg (2.2 to 99.2 lb) in weight. 

The Asian small-clawed otter is the littlest otter species and the giant otter and the sea otter are the biggest. They have delicate, protected underfur, which is secured by an external layer of long watchman hairs. This snares a layer of air that keeps them dry, warm, and fairly light submerged. 

A few otter animal categories live in chilly waters and have high metabolic rates to assist with keeping them warm. European otters should eat 15% of their body weight every day and sea otters 20 to 25%, contingent upon the temperature. In water as warm as 10 °C (50 °F), an otter needs to get 100 g (3.5 oz) of fish each hour to endure. Most species chase for three to five hours every day and nursing moms as long as eight hours each day.

There is a list of otter subspecies, which we will discuss now.

Otter Animal Subspecies

Otter Extinct Species

Other extinct species with the following Genus list:

Types of Otters

Following are the types of otter:

• Sea Otter

• The North American river otter

• Giant Otter

• Eurasian otter

Now, we will discuss the types of otters in detail.

Sea Otter

A sea otter or a marine carnivorous mammal that is native to the Northern and  Eastern North Pacific sea. The adult sea otter weighs between 14 to 45 kg (31 to 99 pounds), stating that this otter is the heaviest member of the weasel family but the smallest among marine animals. Among other otters, the sea otter's chief form of protection is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, by its name, we see that these species prefer to live exclusively in the sea.

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This species has the scientific name Enhydra lutris and comes under the Endangered or the “EN’ list, as per the IUCN 3.1 data.

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The sea otter occupies nearshore conditions, where it jumps to the sea bottom to scavenge. It preys generally on marine invertebrates, like sea urchins, different molluscs and scavengers, and a few types of fish. Its rummaging and dietary patterns are critical in a few regards. To start with, its utilization of rocks to oust prey and to open shells makes it one of only a handful few vertebrate animal groups to utilize apparatuses. In the majority of its reach, it's anything but a cornerstone animal variety, controlling sea imp populaces which would somehow exact broad harm to kelp timberland biological systems. Its eating routine incorporates prey species that are likewise esteemed by people as food, prompting clashes between sea otters and fisheries.

The North American River Otter

The North American river otter (Lontra Canadensis), otherwise called the Northern river otter or the common otter, is a semi-aquatic vertebrate endemic toward the North American mainland found in and along its waterways and coasts. 

An adult North American otter can weigh somewhere in the range of 5.0 and 14 kg (11.0 and 30.9 lb). The stream otter is secured and protected by a thick, water-repellent layer of fur.

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(This duo North River otter picture was captured at the San Francisco Zoo in 2005.)

These species come under the Least Concerned list (or LC), as per the IUCN 3.1 data.

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Besides this, the North American river otter is an individual from the subfamily Lutrinae in the weasel family (Mustelidae), which is similarly flexible in the water and ashore. It's anything but a burrow near the water's edge in a river, lake, swamp, seaside shoreline, salt marsh, or estuary environment. The sanctum commonly has many passage openings, one of which by and large permits the otter to enter and leave the waterway. Female North American river otters conceive offspring in these burrows, delivering litters of one to six youthful.

Giant Otter

The giant otter or the giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is a South American predatory mammal. It is the longest individual from the weasel family, Mustelidae, an internationally fruitful gathering of hunters, coming to up to 1.7 meters (5.6 ft).

A giant otter comes under the Endangered list, as per the IUCN 3.1 data. 

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Here, EN stands for “Endangered.”

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(This duo picture of a giant otter was captured at the Cuiaba River, Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil.)

Now, let us go through a major discovery on giant otter fossils in China.

Giant Otter Discovery

Scientists discovered a giant otter in China. Below are the statements of their findings on a giant otter submitted to the Asian International News or ANI:

A team of researchers from Washington D.C the US discovered prehistoric wolf-sized otter fossils with huge and mighty jaws, weighing on average 100 pounds in China’s Yunnan Province. This study, published in Systematic Paleontology claimed that these fossils were of the largest otter named Siamogale Melilutra, which was twice as large as the other longest life span otters.

Also, they found that Siamogale Melilutra was large in size, having powerful jaws along with enlarged bunodont (rounded cusped) cheek teeth. The characteristics discovered for this species resemble the adaptations of large shellfish and freshwater molluscs, which were abundant in Shuitangba, China. 

As we know the otter is a semi-aquatic fish-eating mammal with an elongated body with dense fur and webbed feet. The discovery of the entire cranium (the skull), mandible, definition, and various skeletal elements could provide a detailed description of species taxonomy, evolutionary history, and functional morphology. 

Dr. Denise Su from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the US said that the bones of this species were so delicate that his team could not restore the cranium physically, however, they CT-scanned the specimen and virtually reconstructed it on the computer. 

Further, from vegetation and other animal groups in Shuitangba, they noticed that this place was swampy with a shallow lake and quite dense vegetation, which belonged to an ancient lineage of extinct otters, which they inferred to 18 million years back time that was previously known for isolated teeth recovered from Thailand. 

Following this, Dr. Xiaoming Wang from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles in the U.S. said that some phylogenetic analysis suggested that bunodont definition independently appeared approximately three times over the evolutionary otter’s history.

Eurasian Otter

As per the article posted in The Hindu Newspaper on October 6, 2006, The Western Ghats is home to the Eurasian hotter. The Eurasian otter is one of the least-known species in India. Now, let us go through the findings done on the dead otter.

The Eurasian species comes under the Near Threatened list, as per the IUCN 3.1 data.

Are Eurasian Otters Found In India?

Incidentally, researchers tracked down the dead otter after a vehicle ran over its anything but a divided rainforest in Tamil Nadu's Valparai. 

Researchers at Valparai's Nature Conservation Foundation went over the otter roadkill two years prior. In light of the dead creature's photos (particularly of its nose and tail), a few little meat-eater specialists concluded it was neither the little pawed nor the smooth-covered otter (the regularly located otter species in south India). 

Afterwards, researchers subsidiary with the Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species at Hyderabad's Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology led hereditary investigations of its tail tissue to affirm that it was undoubtedly the Eurasian otter (Lutra). 

The group revealed the finding in an announcement of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group in the earlier year. 

The Eurasian otter has been recorded verifiably from the Western Ghats (Coorg in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu's Nilgiri and Palani slope ranges, as indicated by zoologist R.I. Pocock in 1941) after 70 years of hard work, the scientists could confirm its presence in India.

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This is the main photographic and genetic affirmation of its presence here. While the species is broad across Europe, northern Africa, and a few south Asian nations, it's anything but as every now and again located as smooth-covered or little ripped at otters in India.

Point to Note:

Though researchers affirmed the presence of the Eurasian otter, the similarity in physical features in all otter species, it becomes difficult to know the exact location of these otters in India, said by Dr. Ajith Kumar, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society-National Centre for Biological Sciences’ post-graduate program in wildlife biology and conservation at Bengaluru.

Besides this, the Eurasian otter was found on Chilika lake in Odisha, which turns out to be the first-ever record for this otter discovered in the Eastern coastline of India.

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Otter Habitat

An otter habitat is generally tracked down close to a couple of hundred meters from the water. Most species are completely subject to aquatic habitats for food. 

River otters (sort Lutra) occupy a wide range of inland waters, just as estuaries and marine inlets. In southern Chile the marine otter is found solely along uncovered rough coastlines; farther North it might possess estuaries and freshwater. 

Monster otters (class Pteronura) are discovered for the most part in sluggish waterways and rivers inside timberlands, bogs, and bogs. They favor streams that have delicately slanting banks and great cover. 

Sea otters (family Enhydra) are found in beachfront waters of the North Pacific, once in a while more than 1 km (0.6 mi.) from shore. 

They are fit for spending their whole life at sea, however, now and then lay on rocky shores. The Alaska otter has a more prominent inclination to pull out (come to shore) than the California otter. 

California otters frequently lean toward kelp beds, most likely due to the security and food assets they give. 

Otter Lifespan

The male otter lifespan stretches between 10 to 15 years, while females live slightly longer, i.e., from 15 to 20 years.

Otter Facts

Below is the list of amazing otter facts:

• Usually, pet otters are hard to find, a dealer has a lot of leeways when naming their price. They need to pay at least $3000 for purchasing them, it could go a little higher. However, this species is not for beginners.

• The habitat of an otter animal at high altitudes is dangerous and inhospitable than other land or terrestrial habitats at lower altitudes. Because at higher altitudes, these species will have to face scarcity of oxygen, food, and water.

• The population of sea otters was once estimated between 150,000 to 300,000, but they were hunted extensively for their fur between the period of 1741 and 1911, because of which the otter population worldwide fell to 1,000–2,000 living in a fraction of their historic range.

• Though protected by the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, otters are still poached for pelts.

• The specialty of river otters - North American river otters, like most hunters, feed on the most promptly available species. Fish is the favourite food among the otters, yet they likewise consume various amphibians (like salamanders and frogs), freshwater clams, mussels, snails, little turtles, and crawfish.

• Except for sea otters, all otters invest a lot of energy ashore, regularly voyaging extensive distances between rivers.

• Otters are distributed worldwide except the two continents viz: Antarctica and Australia.