Lutrinae

There are 14 subspecies of otters.

Otters love to play. They often stand up by treading water, with their heads and necks above the water, looking into the distance, or climbing up and down the slope of the river bank, sliding and rolling on ice and snow, etc. These behaviors make their reactions more acute and their hunting skills more sophisticated. However, it is not good at walking on land. It mainly crawls on its belly, slides, rolls, and jumps intermittently, and staggers on thin ice or shallow snow. When it encounters an enemy, it immediately escapes in an ice cave or under the snow. When it encounters light, it does not stop for a moment like other nocturnal animals, but looks back while running away, showing a strange appearance.

Most otters live in caves, but generally do not have fixed caves. The mother settles down when feeding her cubs. The nest is chosen in the cracks of the embankment or under the roots of the tree, which is dug by itself or repaired by using the old nests of foxes, animals-do-badgers-eat.html">badgers, and hares. The cave generally has two entrances, the entrance and exit of which is generally below the water surface and has a diameter of about 50cm. The other entrance protrudes from the ground and is an air hole to facilitate air circulation. The depth of the cave varies, and some are several meters deep or even 20-30 meters deep. The main cave where they live is wide, often covered with a little dry grass and branches. If the river floods the cave after rain, they will move to the dense bushes on the ground.

Otters like to dive into the water from the shore or river cliffs to chase fish, but the most common hunting method is ambush, especially in winter, they often hide in ice holes, waiting for fish to swim over and suddenly rush out to prey. When they find water birds swimming slowly on the water, they will also sneak up from underwater, then bite the prey and slowly eat it.

Due to the pollution of their habitat environment, the habitat and food source of otters have been destroyed. In places with severe pollution, otters will be directly poisoned to death, and in places with less pollution, they will have low fertility and weak resistance to diseases. Otter skin is expensive, and liver is considered a valuable Chinese medicinal material. Otter hunters have been relentless in their pursuit, causing a sharp decline in the number of otters.

Listed in the 2015 IUCN Red List of Endangered Species ver 3.1 - Near Threatened (NT).

Listed in the second level of the China National Key Protected Wildlife List.

Protect wildlife and eliminate game.

Maintaining ecological balance is everyone's responsibility!

Distributed in Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
In China, they are widely distributed in various provinces and autonomous regions. Kinmen is the only place

The body is long and flat. The head is wide and slightly flat, the snout of the skull is thick and short, the forehead is long, and the ventricle is wide and flat and pear-shaped. The interorbital part is very narrow, and the postorbital ridge extends backward to form a "V"-shaped temporal ridge. The herringbone ridge is obvious. Most of the sutures in the skull of an adult otter are healed, except for the sutures of the nasal bones. The auditory bulla is flat and triangular. The ears are small, with round outer edges and low attachment. The limbs are short, with webbed toes (fingers). There are several short hard whiskers in the center of the chin, and several short bristles behind the wrist pads of the forelimbs. There are small round flaps on the nostrils and ear canals, which can be closed when diving to prevent water intrusion.
Otters have three pairs of incisors, arranged in horizontal rows, and the outer pair is larger, about twice the size of the other two pairs of