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A meeting place for otter lovers and anyone who is interested in otters.
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Do you like this otter? I like how silly they look. Thier spanish name "lobito de río" means "little river wolf." And they have super long tails.
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I'd scoop that.
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If you like it hot... PepperOtter
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I do like the neotropical otter :D They look a little funny, but that is charming.
Neoclassical Otter
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Neodymium Otter
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Neonatal Otter
Today I learned, if sea otters eat a lot of sea urchins, their teeth and bones turn purple.Did you know that?
Do you know any other surprising Otter-Facts?
>teethI guess sea urchins are purple so if they get eaten the otter's teeth go purple..>and bonesWhuuuuuh?!
So sea otters have purple skeletons?
>I guess sea urchins are purple so if they get eaten the otter's teeth go purple..That was my first guess, too. But their skull and teeth really turn purple. It´s called "echinochrome staining": https://dailyotter.org/posts/2024/4/29/lining-up-those-urchins-for-noms
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With all that dense fur you might think otters will overheat quickly in the summer heat wave. What do otters do to cool off?
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> Also, these rocks look kinda like an otterYou know, what makes this even funnier? Lotta and Otis had babies, their names are Piper and Pebble!
There's actually an otter hiding behind a leaf in this photo, might take you a while to find it
Melting... I need some hot otter-wisdom tips
Try a moist towel/shirt. Evaporating Water will cool you down.
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...also stay well hydrated, get rest (like an otter) and make sure to also replenish electrolytes you lost by sweating.
And if possible: get in the water!
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The Otter Youth Circle is back with the 7th installment of our Otter Webinar series: Hairy-nosed Otters : What We Know, & More Importantly, What We Don’t Know! 🌎🦦
In this installment, we welcome Jason Palmerto share on one of the world's rarest otters
!
Jason is a WAZA International Studbook Keeper and EAZA Species Monitor/European Coordinator for the Asian Small-clawed Otter. Bringing decades of experience in ex situ conservation and husbandry
, his talk will explore how our understanding of the Hairy-nosed Otter has evolved, where the species stands today, and why rescue, rehabilitation, and responsible husbandry are becoming increasingly important in the face of the illegal pet trade
.
Whether you work with wildlife, in zoos, or simply love otters, this is a session you won't want to miss.
Date: 1 Aug 2026
Time: 1400–1500h (GMT 0) - Please take note of the time zone!
Sign up here: www.tinyurl.com/OYCwebinar (A Zoom link will be sent upon registration.)
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Heads up, they changed the date, it's on August 11 now.
... which means i can't join after all cause of work...
Meaning more time for me to spot this post!
Reminder, it's today
It was a pretty interesting talk
I hope that we can learn a lot more about this species soon, especially what makes it so difficult to keep rescued hairy nosed otters healthy in captivity
It was also good to hear about how camera traps help study the distribution of the species
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Where do you guys find good sources of otter photos (especially for public domain/free ones)?
Flickr is a good one, but I was wondering if you know about any others...
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https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=otter&title=Special%3AMediaSearch&type=image&haslicense=unrestricted
has good hodge podge. Some historic pics and high quality ones like this snackulating otts
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cuter together
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Otis loves Lotta, Lotta loves Otis!
cuties
I love your photos. I really wanna make some site banners out of them, or something like that...It'll be fancy
Feel free to do so!I´m sure Lotta and Otis would love that, too!
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if all the 14 otter species were lined up in a race, who would cross the finish line first? imagine there's a land section and a water section (please consult the bean)
the smooth coated otter's smoothness probably means less air resistance and friction and they're fast predators underwater.
giant otters are bigger so they can go a further distance in one stride. but also they carry more weight
Eurasian otters and North American river otters are pretty athletic with how much they can migrate in a day, though i don't know if it would help them win a race
on the other hand sea otters probably wouldn't do well, being the slowest on land and essentially pure foragers so they have no reason to be super quick anyway
same with Aonyx which mainly chill and eat crabs.
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and what if the otters could ride bicycles?
you could probably teach an otter to ride a bicycle (though it may not like it at first)
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>Eurasian otters and North American river otters are pretty athletic with how much they can migrate in a day, though i don't know if it would help them win a raceI think those two species are probably the best suited for a general race. You're right that giant otters can have large strides, but I think that they generally gain less via large strides compared to the loss of being somewhat slower to move due to size. Meanwhile, something like an Oriental Small Clawed Otter might be the quickest, but not be as fast due to the relatively smaller nature of its strides. European otters and North American River Otters are probably in the sweet spot of body size/stride length to quickness
Of course, the slowest otter would probably be the snail otter
>He has nowhere to go, he's already home
>and what if the otters could ride bicycles?Depends. Can an otter wear a helmet?
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Otters love their buckets.
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Though have to say otters seem like animals that are enough in tune with each other to plan complex things like that. They'd be able to solve problems together like (how do we steal the guy's bucket without him noticing).
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How about a bucket full of water? I believe humans call that a pool
That would be perfect for otters.
And that pic is just the cutest!
Otters love otters in buckets
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I might be into otters lots, maybe an unreasonable amount. But there's a problem i have is, what are some things I can do about it?
Most people have things they're interested in they can just do every weekend. otterwatching it's possible but not straightforward and otters aren't around everywhere. I know about otter spotting and that might be fun but don't know how rewarding it is regularly.
I'm usually just scrolling photos and browsing here and occasionally visiting zoo otters. So, I just wanted to hear some thoughts on this, what do you guys do for fun? Where do you channel your interest in ottery?
That's a great question, and I know how you feel, here's a few suggestions.
- Otter arts, do any kind of art with otters as the muse. I really like drawing simple cartoony otters for example, but it could apply to most artforms.
- Engage in otter studies, or otter-adjacent studies like river health, etc. I've read quite a few good books about otters, which is a good place to start. Perhaps the roles of otters in other cultures.
- Create tools for other otter enthusiasts, like this wonderful website. Or otherwise engage in nature conservation yourself (easier said than done ofc.)
Or, find hobbies that are otter adjacent, like hiking and camping (ideally by rivers or lakes
Hope this helps :]
Have you tried Scuba-Diving? You love semi-aquatic mammals- just become one yourself!
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>I really like drawing simple cartoony otters for exampleI tried it
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I can get into that.
Those are some neat ideas too, so it comes down to art, books and other media, doing what you can to help otters and spendig time in nature in places where otters might hang out at. Looks like there's lots of ways to have fun with otts as you'd expect
Spectacular!!
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Educational otter materials
Hi otters, as some of you might have heard at the congress, Carol Bennetto from the Otter Specialist Group launched a fantastic little website where she hosts a bunch of educational material about otters for kids and adults. However she needs some help creating new material, as well as translating and distributing the existing stuff.
Maybe we can help out and make some material of our own? I'm sure we have quite a few otters with the necessary skills here... people need to know about otters, after all.
https://ottered.com/
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I agree, that's definitely worth mentioning. IMO it's good to keep it short and sweet and get the point across. Why don't we both think about it and write something up? Maybe we can make it into a graphic, too.
Sounds like a plan, I'll write something up tonight
Hey, did we ever finish something?
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Reviving this topic. This little idea came to me, what if you made something where you could learn about alll the different genera, the subfamilies of otter species and what makes them similar to each other and different from the rest? See all the connections... and stuff
^ starting with Aonyx here, sorry if it doesn't look super clean, I punched it into my phone with my fingers
Hey, I really like this Poster! And yes, great idea.
