An otter is any of 13 living species of semi aquatic (or in the case of the sea otter, aquatic) mammals that feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals.
The otter subfamily Lutrinae forms part of the family mustilidae, which also includes weasels, badgers, wolverines, and polecats.
The word otter derives from the Old English word otor or oter. This, and cognate words in other Indo-European language, ultimately stem from theProto-Indo-european language root wódr̥, which also gave rise to the English word "water".
An otter's den is called a holt or couch. A male otter is a meowter, a female is a queen, and a baby is a pup. The collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge, or romp, (being descriptive of their often playful nature) or, when in water, raft.
The time of gestation in otters is about 60 to 86 days. The newborn pup is taken care of by the mother, the father, and all the other offspring. Female otters reach sexual maturity at approximately two years of age, while males can produce offspring at approximately three years of age. After one month, the young otter can come out of the cave and, after two months, it is able to swim. It lives with its family for about one year, so it can learn and be kept safe until maturity. Otters live up to 16 years.
Otters have long, slim bodies and relatively short limbs, with webbed paws. Most have sharp claws on their feet, and all except the sea otter have long, muscular tails. The 13 species range in adult size from 0.6 to 1.8 metres (2 to 6 ft) in length and 1 to 45 kilograms (2.2 to 100 lb) in weight. The Oriental small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and the giant otter and sea otter are the largest. They have very soft, insulated underfur, which is protected by an outer layer of long guard hair. This traps a layer of air, and keeps them dry and warm under water.
Many otters live in cold waters and have very high metabolic rate to help keep them warm. European otter must eat 15% of their body weight a day, and sea otters 20 to 25%, depending on the temperature. In water as warm as 10 °C (50 °F), an otter needs to catch 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of fish per hour to survive. Most species hunt for three to five hours a day, and nursing mothers up to eight hours a day.
For most otters, fish is the staple of their diet. This is often supplemented by frogs, crayfish and crabs. Some otters are expert at opening shellfish, and others will feed on available small mammals or birds. Prey-dependence leaves otters very vulnerable to prey depletion.
Otters are very active, chasing prey in the water or searching the beds of rivers, lakes or the seas. Most species live beside water, but river otters usually enter it only to hunt or travel, otherwise spending much of their time on land to avoid their fur becoming waterlogged. Sea otters are highly aquatic and live in the ocean for most of their lives.
Otters are playful animals and appear to engage in various behaviors for sheer enjoyment, such as making waterslides and then sliding on them into the water. Different species vary in their social structure, with some being largely solitary, while others live in groups – in a few species these groups may be fairly large.
The North American River otter (lontra canadensis) became one of the major animals hunted and trapped for fur in America after European contact. Otters eat a variety of fish and shellfish, as well as small land animals and birds. They grow to one meter (3 to 4 feet) in length and weigh from five to 15 kilograms (10 to 30 lbs). Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) live along the Pacific coast of North America. Their historic range included shallow waters of the Bering Strait and Kamcatcha, and as far south as Japan. Sea otters have about 26,000 to 165,000 strands of hair per square centimetre 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) frequently using rocks as crude tools to smash open shells.They grow to 1.0 to 1.5 metres (2.5 to 5 ft) in length and weigh 30 kilograms (65 lb). Although once near extinction, they have begun to spread again, from remnant populations in California and Alaska. Unlike most marine mammals (such as seals or whales), sea otters do not have a layer of insulating blubber. As with other species of otter, they rely on a layer of air trapped in their fur, which they keep topped up by blowing into the fur from their mouths. They spend most of their time in the water, whereas other otters spend much of their time on land. "On the surface, entangled in seaweed, they float |