Asian Small Clawed Otter

  OTHER NAMES:

  TAXONOMY:
        Kingdom: Animalia
        Phylum: Chordata
        Class: Mammalia
        Order: Carnivora
        Family: Mustelidae
        Genus: Aonyx
        Species: cinerea

  DESCRIPTION:     The Asian Small Clawed Otter is the smallest otter in the world and is about two feet long and weighs under ten pounds.  It has a glossy brown coat with a lighter colored underside and sometimes white markings generally around the face,  throat, and chest area.  Its feet are webbed to the last joint of the toe instead of being webbed all the way to the beginning of their short blunt claws, this gives the otter an excellent sense of touch and coordination.  Their large broad cheek teeth are used for crushing the shells of crabs and mollusks.

  HABITAT:     These otters are found in Southern India and China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines.  They live in mangrove swamps and freshwater  wetlands.  They spend more time on land than many types of otters.  They are used by fishermen in Southeast Asia to drive shoals of fish into their nets.  The otters are kept on long lines with a harness and are allowed to eat any fish they catch.  They also help with farming, by eating the crawfish that are known for destroying crops.

  DIET:     The Asian Small Clawed Otter catches its prey with its hand like paws instead of its mouth like other otters tend to do.  They feed on crabs, mollusks, fish and other small aquatic animals.  They use their hands to feel around in shallow water for clams and then pile them up on the shore.  The clams will eventually open up after sitting in the sun for a period of time and the otters are then able to eat them.

  BEHAVIOR:  These otters have 12 different vocabulary calls besides their basic instinctive calls.  They build burrows along the water with an exit tunnel that leads to about 3 feet under the waters surface.  The water is not only a playground but an escape route from danger.  Otters have also been seen washing their food, a behavior well adapted by raccoons.

  REPRODUCTION:      These otters are monogamous, male and female mate for life, and is one of the few otter species that is social and not solitary in its habits.  The females gestation period last about 60-64 days and they can have anywhere for 1-2 litters a year.  Both parents stay together after breeding and help raise the litter of up to six pups that are born helpless.  Pups don't start swimming for about 9 weeks and don't take in solid food for about 80 days after birth.  The male normally brings food back for the mother and her pups.  The pups may then stay with their parents which starts the formation of a small social group of up to 12 individuals.

 

  STATUS IN THE WILD:

  CONSERVATION:  The Small Clawed Otter is known as an Species Survival Plan (SSP) group.  The Small Clawed Otter SSP was one of the first to develop and it's original purpose was to serve as a model for the captive breeding of endangered social otters like the Giant Otter and the Cape Clawless Otter.  Since then the Asian Small Clawed Otter has become threatened itself due to habitat loss and the development of kidney stones in the captive otters.  Today there are approximately 110 otters in the 21 participating SSP zoos that are being worked with to find a cure, through the diet that they would get in the wild and what they get in captivity, for the kidney stones.

Page created by Melissa MacCalmon  Spring 2000 and Jodt Ates Fall 2002 Pensacola Junior College ZooTech Students