Otters have to eat vast amounts of food every day, which takes up a significant portion of their time. Sea otters can hold their breather underwater for more than 5 minutes, and river otters can hold theirs for more than 8! Otters eat 15-20 percent of their bodyweight daily. You’d think this would pose a problem for a species which spends the majority of its time either in water, or hunting in water, but apparently not! This means that we do not have the ability to breathe underwater. There’s also no single collective noun for them – if there’s a group of otters on the water they are called a raft, but if they’re on land they can be called a bevy, family, romp, or lodge! Otters can hold their breath for a really long time. When otters are born they can either be called pups or kittens.įemale otters can be called sows or bitches, and male otters can be called boars or dogs. While this usually happens after the previous animal has moved out, they are known to move into beavers dams while they’re still using them! There’s a surprisingly large amount of names used to describe otters. Otters? More like squatters! River otters are much more likely to take another animal’s home instead of building their own. River otters rarely make their own homes. Sea otters also hold onto kelp that grows from the floor of the sea for the same purpose. It’s quite common for a mother and her pup to hold each other’s hands so that they don’t drift away from each other while they sleep. These otters don’t just do this to be incredibly adorable though. Nowadays this technique is still practiced in Bangladesh, where trained otters are used to chase fish into fishing nets. Historically otters have been used by humans to aid in the process of fishing all over the world. Otters and humans sometimes work together. The father is usually chased away soon after a litter is born though, and the mother takes care of them until they’re about a year old. Otters are born with their eyes closed, and as soon as they open they have a lot to learn like swimming and hunting. No matter the size of the group though, you’ll always find them playing around, wrestling, chasing their tails and having an otterly great time. Otters are usually found in small family groups with the mother and her young offspring.ĭuring mating season, or when there’s an abundance of food you’ll find much larger groups of otters. Scientists say that its smell is like that of violets. Some say it’s the least offensive smelling poo of the animal kingdom, while others say it’s the absolute worst. Otter poop has such a unique smell that it has even ended up with its own name – spraint. Let’s hope they don’t develop a taste for people! Otter poop has the strangest smell. In a bizarre turn away from their normal diet, there are some otters in the Shetland Islands in Scotland which have been known to hunt rabbits instead of fish. They may sometimes come to shore, but they spend the majority of time in the water, hanging around kelp forests. Sea otters though, are the complete opposite. Most species of otters actually spend their time on the banks of rivers and other bodies of water when they’re not hunting. The majority of otters spend most of their time on land. Sea otters are known for their remarkable ability to use rocks to smash open shellfish to fill their stomachs. While river otters mostly live off fish, crayfish, and crabs, sea otters have a more interesting method of sustaining themselves. Otters are known to be pretty incredible hunters, living off a diet of mostly seafood. There are 13 known species of otters, which range in size from 2.9 feet (90 cm) all the way to 5.9 feet (1.8 m) long! Otters are expert hunters. Otters can be found in unpolluted waters all over the world in marshland, freshwater rivers, lakes, oceans, and coastlines. This is possible because their fur is so dense, with around a million hairs per square inch. This process actually makes the outer layer waterproof. To ensure that they stay dry they must spend a significant portion of the day grooming themselves, coating their fur in saliva. Otters spend a large amount of time in the water, yet they still have fur. So what is it about otters that make them so otterly amazing? Let’s take a closer look here with these 15 otter facts! Otters have the densest fur of the animal kingdom. They’re actually part of the weasel family, but they’re the only ones that swim! These adorable little guys have long, streamlined bodies that are just made for being in the water. They’re cute, they’re fuzzy and easily photogenic! Otters are the dogs of the water world, so it’s no small wonder that we humans have such affection for them.
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