Some species of otter are quite common and easy to see in the right places, but others are extremely rare and very difficult to find.<\/p>\n
Otters are well adapted to life on both land and in water, and have webbed feet for swimming, dense fur for warmth, and can close their ears and nose underwater. An agile<\/span> hunter of fish, learn more about this carnivorous, semi-aquatic mammal, including how to identify each species, habitat, diet and other key species facts.<\/p>\n Otters live in a wide variety of watery locations, from the mighty Amazon to the heart of Singapore. But the sea otter\u2019s habitat is unique, as they only live in shallow coastal waters in the North Pacific ocean.<\/p>\n As predators that are near the top of the food chain, otters are hugely important for keeping their environments balanced.<\/p>\n Research has shown that sea otters are vital to the health of carbon-absorbing kelp forests. They prey on sea urchins that feed on kelp. In environments where sea otter populations have been reintroduced, tall kelp forests are flourishing.<\/p>\n More related content:<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> Many otters eat tough food, particularly sea otters that inhabit the shallow coastal waters of the northern Pacific. They\u2019re renowned for preying on hard-shelled marine invertebrates, including abalones, sea urchins, clams, mussels and crabs, usually fracturing the shells with their teeth.<\/p>\n A sea otter can consume up to 11kg of food every day to support its high metabolism \u2013 that\u2019s about a quarter of its own body weight! The energy demands of a sea otter mother increases by 17 per cent after giving birth.<\/p>\n Many species of river-dwelling otter can swim quite quickly \u2013 they have to be strong swimmers to catch fish and fight the flow of the river. With the giant otters of the Amazon growing up to 2m in length, you can imagine that they can swim pretty speedily when they want to!<\/p>\n More surprisingly, sea otters are quite slow swimmers, although they are extremely agile. They spend the majority of their lives on their backs, only flipping over onto their fronts when greater speed is required. To swim faster they use their webbed feet for propulsion and undulate their bodies.<\/p>\n Sea otters can reach 9kph underwater, North American river otters are faster at 11kph, and the maximum speed of the giant river otter is an impressive 14kph.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not unusual to see a mother otter with her cubs, but families aside, it depends on the species. Many are mostly solitary apart from the breeding season, whereas others live in groups all year round.<\/p>\n The most gregarious by far are sea otters, which are polygynous (males mate with multiple females). While mothers and pups are usually solitary, sea otters can form social groups of up to a few dozen. When on water, these groups are called rafts, and the largest one ever recorded contained up to 2,000 sea otters.<\/p>\n The answer varies by species and location. Eurasian otters numbers decreased drastically throughout the UK in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Habitat loss and pollution played a major part in the decline. However, they have since staged a remarkable comeback in the UK, where they\u2019re now once again present in every single county.<\/p>\n But habitat loss and hunting have brought many populations of other otter species crashing down around the world, especially in more tropical locations.<\/p>\n North American sea otters are something of a recent success story after they were brought close to extinction in the 19th century, widely hunted for their fur. This was stopped by the establishment of the International Fur Seal Treaty in 1911. Populations in Canada and California are now doing well.<\/p>\n Otters have their cubs in underground dens called holts, which they dig themselves. They will also use hollows under trees or old rabbit holes.<\/p>\n Their droppings are known as spraints and can be identified by an odour that is said to range from musky mown hay to jasmine tea to rotting fish.<\/p>\n A sea otter\u2019s pelt is the thickest of any mammal. It is made up of a waterproof top layer and a short underlayer, which can contain as many as one million hairs per square inch. This makes up for its lack of blubber in the cold Pacific water. Even a baby sea otter can stay warm on the open ocean, but they do need some help from their mothers.<\/p>\n Winter brings many challenges for Eurasian otters. The species has no seasonal fur variation, so expends far more heat and energy swimming and diving in colder waters despite its dense, double-layered coat.<\/p>\n A daily food intake of 15\u201320% of body weight is key to survival, and otters adapt their patterns of predation and hunting behaviour to make the most of the prey available during these leaner months.<\/p>\n Scottish coastal otters, for example, which usually forage and hunt throughout the day in summer, instead seek prey more intensively in the mornings (though, interestingly, camera-traps set by the International Otter Survival Fund<\/a> have revealed that they are in fact also active at night).<\/p>\n Winter brings many other dangers to otters. If conditions are mild and wet, cubs can drown in flooded holts. Swollen, murky waters also make swimming more difficult, forcing the animals onto busy roads. You can see why only 50% of youngsters survive to see the spring.<\/p>\n This species is the most widely distributed of all the otters, ranging through Eurasia up to the Arctic Circle, from Ireland to Kamchatka, and south to North Africa, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.<\/p>\n Their varied and adaptable diets mean they may inhabit any unpolluted body of fresh water, including lakes, streams, rivers, and ponds, as long as there are adequate food supplies. On the Shetland Islands, some otters have been known to abandon fishing in favour of rabbit hunting.<\/p>\n As of 2011, they can be found in every English county, including some urban rivers.<\/p>\nWhere do otters live?<\/h2>\n
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<\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>What do otters eat?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How fast can otters swim?<\/h2>\n
What is a group of otters called?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Why are otters endangered?<\/h2>\n
What is an otter\u2019s home called?<\/h2>\n
How do otters stay warm?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How to identify otter species<\/h2>\n
Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra<\/em>)<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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