Asian Short Clawed Otter Natural History
They reach lengths of 65cm to 90cm.
Habitat and Distribution
Their habitat ranges from small streams to marshland and mangrove swamps. Their range covers southeastern China up to northern India with scattered ranges across areas of Indonesia.
Their life span in the wild is usually between 10 and 15 years however in zoos they have been kept for over 20 years.
These otters make up most of their diet with crabs and mollusc, as well as any other organisms it can find at the bottom of rivers and ponds. However being opportunistic they will feed on anything they can find, often eating things such as young birds.
Groups and Breeding
This is a very social animal which generally lives in groups of 4 to 8 individuals however it is not uncommon to find groups of up to around 15 animals.
They use vocalisations to warn one another of danger and locate each other in the wild, and are though to have around 12 unique calls.
Females will give birth to 4 to 5 cubs on average after a gestation period of 9 weeks.
Their main threats come from habitat destruction in their natural range and from being hunted to fulfill the continuing demand for their fur. They are still also collected for the pet trade to some degree.
This is the smallest of all otter species.
The Short Clawed Otters During Your Day Out in Kent
At Wingham Wildlife Park we have a pair of Asian short clawed otters called Jill and Tambo. They can be found in the final one of our 3 otter pools (closest to the vervet monkeys), and are the first to get fed during the 12:00 feed time which can be witnessed every day. They are the smallest otter species and you can really see the size difference when compared to the smooth coated otters which live next door to them. Even though they might be smaller, they are still huge bundles of fun and can often be seen hanging around in the reeds looking for bugs and sun bathing on their log.
They are fed fresh water fish as the bulk of their diet.