Where does the otter live? The otter is a rare animal from the Red Book of Animals leading a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

The nature of our planet is unique. It is so mysterious that scientists are still discovering more and more new species. But that’s not the only beauty of it. Even animals that have long been known can be interesting to observe and study. For example, the river otter. Photos and descriptions of this animal can be found in many zoological books. And they all talk about the beauty of this animal.

This animal is very flexible and dexterous. It has a streamlined body shape. It's pretty large animal with a small head. His ears are barely visible due to his fur; they are short and located on the sides of his head. There is a special valve in the ears that closes the ear canal when the river otter dives into water. Its muzzle is short and wide, with long sideburns on the sides. The animal's neck is very thick and short, the same width as its head. The river otter has small round eyes. They are set high, which gives the animal good review. Males, as often happens, are more massive and stronger than females. The animal's legs are short but strong. They have special membranes between their fingers. This allows you to swim better. The claws are small and short. The river otter also has long tail. It acts as a fin and helps you move better underwater. The elongated hind legs also serve the same purpose. The animal's fur is smooth and has two layers. The top one is rougher and smoother, while the bottom one is very thick and slightly wavy. This structure of the fur allows it not to get wet and maintains the temperature of the animal at the desired level. This is what a river otter looks like. The photos presented in the article allow us to study her appearance in more detail.

Color and voice of the animal

The animal's fur is dark brown or brown, the undercoat is light brown. The color also changes to different parts bodies. For example, the sides of an otter are lighter, and the belly has a silvery tint with yellowish or brownish tints. Dark brown hair predominates on the paws and tail. A river otter can make many sounds, depending on the situation. If she gets scared of something, she will definitely start hissing. When the animals play with each other, they chirp and squeal in a peculiar way. 10 kg is Weight Limit which the animal can reach. The river otter can reach sizes ranging from 50-55 cm without a tail. The tail separately has a length of up to 95 cm. When favorable conditions The otter can live up to 10 years.

Habitat

This animal can live throughout Western Europe and most of Asia. The banks of streams, lakes and rivers, and in rare cases the sea coast, are considered acceptable for its habitat. When choosing a place to live, an otter will choose a river that has a fast current and a rocky bottom. There should also be plenty of fish and diving ducks. If the river is quiet, then the chance of seeing this animal there is small. The best rivers for otters are medium-sized rivers with a width of up to 15 meters. These sizes were chosen because in winter you can find a wide variety of frost-free areas.

Food and enemies

When answering the question of what the river otter eats, you need to determine the type of its diet. As you know, there are three types: herbivores, meat-eaters and omnivores. The otter is a meat eater. The basis of its diet is fish weighing up to 2.5 kg. It could be trout, pike or carp. Also, this animal does not disdain ground dwellers in the form of rabbits, various birds, frogs and rodents. It can also eat beetles and shellfish. with their own fierce enemies The otter counts wolves, eagles and lynxes, who are not averse to eating the meat of this animal.

Otter lifestyle

This animal prefers to hunt at night. During the day, it rests in its hole or in the roots of trees growing near the river. If the day is hot, the otter likes to bask on the rocks or on the trunk of a fallen tree. When dusk comes, this cute animal turns into a hunter. It suits him well for life and sea water, but an otter can only drink fresh water. She has good hearing, charm and eyesight. If this animal falls into captivity, it quickly adapts and tames, loves its owner very much and is not averse to playing with him. The otter is also very resilient. If necessary, she can walk up to 10 km a day. She builds trails and uses them for years. An interesting thing is that otters go to the same place to go to the toilet. If the area is safe and there is enough food, then these animals will not change their home. But if necessary, they can walk up to 20 km in search of a new shelter. But this only happens during the warm season. In winter, otters do not move away from unfrozen water or wormwood.

Structure of social connections

The river otter prefers to live alone. Meetings, if they occur, are only for the conception of offspring. This animal marks its territory with feces and a special secretion that is secreted from the anal glands. Males own larger areas than females. Otters usually hunt along 2-6 km of shore along the river, and they go into the water up to 100 m. Males and females can be neighbors, but the female will not tolerate another female. Relations between males have a hierarchical structure: the dominant one takes the best territory for himself. After his displacement, this rank passes to another representative of the species.

Breeding river otters

In the second year of life, these animals begin puberty, and after a year they are able to reproduce independently. The female may be capable of conceiving several times a year. Her heat lasts up to two weeks. Meeting the opposite sex can happen both on land and in water. Fights between males are normal. The best of them receives a reward. Pregnancy lasts up to 10 weeks. After this, 2 to 4 blind puppies are born. They are already completely covered with fur. The weight of these babies is about 100 grams, and the length is about 12 cm. Mom feeds them milk from 2-3 pairs of nipples. It takes them 2-3 weeks to start crawling. At 4-5 weeks the eyes open. At the age of 7 weeks, puppies begin to learn to hunt independently. Their molars appear by 2 months of life. During this same period they learn to swim. At 3-4 months, puppies are already independent enough for their mother to leave them. When they are 8-12 months old, they leave to find their own home, but may stay with their mother for a while longer.

The importance of the river otter for humans

Although otters are caught for their fur, their importance in this industry is not very great. After all, only the animal’s undercoat can be beneficial to humans, because the spine is very rough and has to be plucked out. The rest of the fur is very durable, warm and light. Otters are hunted mainly for what they eat. large number fish, causing people to suffer losses. Because of environmental pollution and expansion of infrastructure, this species does not have the opportunity to reproduce in sufficient numbers. Otters very often get entangled in fishing nets or die from harmful substances that enter the water thanks to humans. They hunt these animals with the help of dogs. Due to such actions on the part of people, this species is very rare. Therefore, it was included in the International Red Book. And in 1985, they even developed a special program for breeding otters in Europe.

Thus, one of the brightest representatives of the animal world Western Europe and Asia is the river otter. The photos show how interesting and beautiful this animal is. Because of man, he is in danger of extinction, but in recent years its population has nevertheless increased.

Once upon a time, people and animals were equal before the formidable forces of nature. But millennia passed, and man was able to subjugate wild nature and master most of the earth.

Nowadays, animals often cannot live on our planet in natural conditions, and many species are becoming extinct. Over the past 100 years, several hundred animal species have ceased to exist on Earth. Many are at risk of death in the near future. Adults and children all over the world must help animals not disappear from the face of the Earth. And for this we need to know who lives around us - in the forests, fields, mountains, rivers. You need to know the habits of animals and not interfere with the behavior natural look life.

Otters are the largest members of the mustelid family: they reach a length of almost a meter and their weight reaches almost 12 kilograms. Otters are found in inland waters and are excellently adapted for living on water. Thanks to its rounded head, short thick neck, cylindrical body, thick tail and webbed feet, the otter moves effortlessly in the water. When she dives, the muscles of her ears and nostrils contract and close them tightly.

The otter's body is elongated, flexible, mobile, its ears are round, small, and barely protrude from the fur. The eyes are large, oriented forward and upward, and glow copper-red at night. The legs are short, with small claws and developed membranes between the toes. The hair is dark brown, very thick and even throughout the body. The color of the fur on the belly is slightly lighter than on the back. Females are smaller than males.

Habitat

The otter is a semi-aquatic animal. Prefers inaccessible wooded shores. The nature of the ice cover is of great importance for the existence of the otter. The presence of wormwood and thawed areas is necessary for animals. The abundance of ice and complete freezing of water bodies deprives them of the opportunity to develop even water bodies rich in food or forces them to make dangerous seasonal transitions.

Water is vital for the otter: in it it obtains food and seeks salvation from danger. But land is also of great importance in the life of an otter; on it the animal builds shelters and reproduces, rests and makes transitions between bodies of water.

The river otter, as I have already written, prefers rivers whose banks are covered with forest over a large area. Here she lives in underground passages. The exit is always under water, usually at a depth of half a meter; from here a passage almost two meters long rises in an oblique direction and leads to a spacious basin, which is carefully lined with grass, so that it is always dry. Another narrow passage leads from the basin to the surface of the shore and serves for ventilation. Typically, the river otter uses ready-made burrows and caves in the shore, washed away by water, for housing, which it only lengthens and expands by digging the ground and gnawing the roots it comes across. In rare cases, she uses abandoned fox and badger holes if they are located near water. For the most part, she owns several dwellings; if it happens that a river or lake is too abundant in fish, then there is no need for it to undertake long trips to change its habitat. During a flood, which also floods her home, she takes refuge in nearby trees or in a hollow and spends time here in peace and relaxation from her constant occupation - fishing.

The otter prefers ponds with clear water, fast current and rocky riverbed. Because of her passion for rivers, people call her the list (previously they said poreshnya). Habitat river otter, individual or family, small and limited coastal strip, the width of which rarely exceeds 200-300 meters.

IN hard times the otter turns into an avid traveler. In the north of the region, the otter moves away due to unfavorable ice cover - the animal actually leads a semi-nomadic lifestyle in winter, moving from one body of water to another. IN summer period migrations, on the contrary, are caused by summer shallowing and drying out - the otter goes to where large waters remain.

Nutrition

The river otter is a typical fish eater. In the rivers Chelyabinsk region She prefers perch, roach, bream and pike. The otter prefers small fish to large ones, and willingly catches fry in spawning areas. The otter feeds on everything it can handle. One day an otter caught not far from the house in short time two geese that were swimming in a ditch, sneaking up on them underwater and grabbing their prey by the belly.

The otter's winter food is mainly frogs, which it hardly touches during the ice-free period. According to scientists in winter time these amphibians make up about half of its diet, but in the spring, when frogs are more active, the otter prefers to hunt fish.

Despite the fact that the otter is a carnivorous mammal, its diet in summer includes coastal plants such as reeds, cattails, horsetail, sedge and reeds.

Hunting methods

Usually the river otter goes fishing only after sunset. During such a hunt, she often happens to approach human habitation and climb into cities and villages lying along big rivers. In shallow waters, she drives fish into bays to make it difficult for them to escape and make it easier to catch them, or, slapping the water with their tail, drives them out of coastal holes and from under stones, so that the fish most likely becomes prey for a cunning beast.

The otter's main way of hunting fish is stalking and stalking. On shallow rifts, the predator guards its prey on rocks or on the shore. water rat The otter lies in wait at her holes. It mainly pursues schooling and not very active fish, which are easier to catch. The otter often visits “fish holes” - pools of calm water, in which sedentary fish accumulate for the night. Underwater, she always grabs prey with her mouth. An otter normally eats about one kilogram of fish per day. Having grabbed a fish, the predator usually eats it on a stone protruding from the water, in winter on the edge of an opening. It eats only freshly caught prey, does not hide uneaten remains and never returns to them.

Features of reproduction

There is still much that is unclear in the biology of otter reproduction. It is not confined to a specific season of the year. In every month of the year you can find her cubs. Typically, mating time coincides with the end of February and the beginning of March. The male and female attract each other with a strong, drawn-out whistle and play lovingly with each other in the water. Intrauterine development is delayed and can occur after 7-8 months. But most often, nine weeks after mating, the female brings two to four blind cubs in a safe burrow, built on the shore under an old tree or strong roots on a soft and warm grass bed. After nine to ten days the animals open their eyes, and after eight weeks the mother takes them out to fish. They remain for almost six months under the supervision of the female, during which she teaches the techniques necessary for their hunting. In the third year they become so mature that they are capable of reproduction. In the first days, the mother, leaving to hunt, covers the otter eggs with grass or moss if the nest is not made in a hole, but from the surface of the ground, hiding them from beast of prey or a bird of prey.

The otter is very attached to its offspring. In case of danger, she protects them, sometimes even attacks first. It's interesting how otters teach their cubs to swim. Kids are not afraid of water and splash around the shore, not daring to go into the depths. Their parents push them, and sometimes even take them on their backs to the middle of the river, and dump them there. Otters splash around in the water, and adults make sure they don't drown. The animals reach sexual maturity in the third year of life.

Lifestyle and distribution

features of biology

The otter belongs to specialized freshwater forms associated with lowland and mountain rivers. In the absence of persecution, it gets along well in anthropogenic landscapes. It makes its burrow in close proximity to a pond, often using a niche under the roots of fallen trees (Appendix 1). It obtains food in the water and seeks refuge here in case of danger. It dives instantly with a strong splash, but if necessary, it goes under water completely silently.

Before diving, the otter takes in air in a split second; to do this, it only needs to stick the tip of its muzzle out of the water. It can stay under water for up to 5 minutes; the otter’s diving path can be traced by the bubbles of air it exhales.

The otter is a very active animal that spends a significant part of its time playing. In the water, the otter moves quickly, catching even the fastest fish (Appendix 5). She loves to skate with a running start on smooth ice or steep slopes, where characteristic grooves remain on the clay or snow (Appendix 3). The otter has a special “roller coaster” that the animals have been using for games for decades. In reservoirs where otters live, you can also find areas on the shore with trampled grass, where otters rest during the day (Appendix 6), as well as viewing and feeding “tables” with food remains and droppings. The otter is cautious and secretive; It mainly makes transitions to new areas by water. On land, the otter is less mobile and even clumsy, although it can walk across snowy ice up to 10 km. The otter knows its hunting area - a strip of approximately 100 - meters wide, stretching along the river for 2 - 6 km, down to the smallest detail. She has several burrows in this area. In some the otter sleeps and rests, while in others it lives only while feeding its babies. These nests are made especially carefully: the entrance is hidden under water, the ventilation hole is cleverly disguised in the bushes. With a rich food supply, a sedentary can live for several years.

traces

Traces characteristic shape, with teardrop-shaped toe marks and an elongated heel on the hind legs. The first toe is often not imprinted, especially on the front paws, but even in not very deep snow there is usually a furrow from the tail. The size of the footprint is 12x10 cm. The footprints are arranged in oblique rows of 3 or 4 (Appendix 3) Jump length 60 - 90 cm.

spreading

The otter is distributed everywhere except the tundra and arid areas, but almost everywhere it is rare or has disappeared due to hunting, water pollution and a decrease in fish stocks. Relatively common only in some places in the north and north-west of the European part of Russia, on the middle Ob, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, in the Amur basin and nature reserves of Primorye. In the Urals it is found from the tundra of the Yamal Peninsula to Southern Urals inclusive, along the valley of the Ural River to the mouth. Currently, the otter permanently lives in the northwestern part of the Chelyabinsk region: the basin of the Verkhnyaya and Nizhnyaya Bianka (Asha district), Ay, Sulla, Nyazya and Ufa rivers.

economic importance

Among fishermen and hunters at one time there was a widespread opinion that the otter was harmful. But careful research has shown that in places where the otter settles, fish catches increase. It “removes” sick and weakened fish from the reservoir and destroys trash fish en masse, thereby protecting the eggs of commercial fish from being eaten.

In the past, the otter was an important game animal. Her fur was in high demand because it is very beautiful and durable. Its wearability in the fur industry is taken as 100%. During the processing process, the coarse awn is plucked out and a short, thick, delicate underfur is left.

otter breeding and domestication

Although in nature the otter avoids humans, in captivity it easily makes contact with people. In terms of tameability, the otter is close to the dog. If an otter is raised from childhood, it will perceive people and other domestic animals as its family, love them and follow the person. A tamed otter cannot be passed on to other owners or sent to a zoo - it will suffer immensely after losing its family. The otter began to be domesticated many centuries ago. There is information that back in the 17th century, tame otters were used in England to drive fish into nets. On American and Canadian farms, it happens that otters live on equal terms with cats and dogs. Sometimes there are "semi-tamed" otters who live on the river and come to the farm to eat and play - after all, otters are more prone to play than any other wild animal. They really play with each other, and not only babies, but also adult otters. The list of fun activities includes catch-up, hide-and-seek, and wrestling. It happens that one otter catches a fish and hides it, while the others try to find it. Then the fish hides and the game starts all over again. In Russia, they tried to breed otters: in the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Region, on the basis of the Cherginsky experimental farm of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in the early 80s, attempts were made to cage breeding otters. For a number of reasons, it was not possible to obtain positive results, and the work was curtailed. Currently, employees of the Novosibirsk Zoo are quite successfully breeding otters. You can try to domesticate the otter - after all, it is good at communicating with people.

I think that the common otter is a promising species for domestication and cage farming. Domestication and cage breeding can save this species from extinction in its natural habitat.

The otter's cunning and crafty face, deft movements in the water and funny gait on land - it is not difficult to fall under its charm, especially considering that it is also very temperamental and quite sociable: it squeals, whistles, chirps, hisses. Therefore, it hardly occurs to anyone that this darling, even predatory animal, is able to cope with a young alligator, which is rightfully considered one of the most dangerous and strong predators planets.

Locked in mortal combat the animals were spotted on one of the lakes in Florida. The attacker turned out to be a mammal, which with sharp fangs grabbed the reptile by the neck and, having secured an advantageous position for itself, completely deprived it of the opportunity to do anything. After a short fight, the otter pulled the alligator out of the lake and disappeared from sight with the prey.

Otter (lat. Lutra) is called carnivorous mammal, leading semi-aquatic image life and belonging to the mustelidae family. The subfamily has 5 genera and 17 species, among which the most famous are the common (river) otter, sea otter, sea otter, Brazilian (giant) and Caucasian otter. All species of this animal are listed in the International Red Book: valuable fur Otters have been attracting the attention of poachers for centuries.

Descriptions of otters of different genera differ depending on the species. Thus, the body length of the animal ranges from 55 to 95 cm, while it is very flexible, muscular and long. The length of the tail ranges from 22 to 55 cm, it is thick at the base, tapering towards the end, and is not fluffy. The largest is considered to be the Brazilian or giant otter, which lives on the banks of the Amazon and Orinoco: together with the tail, the length of this animal reaches two meters, and its weight is more than twenty kilograms.

Thus, the giant otter is the largest representative of its subfamily. It can compete only with the sea otter living in the open sea, which, although smaller, is much heavier.

The smallest otter, the eastern one, lives in the swamps of Asia. The length of its body, including its tail, ranges from 70 to 100 cm, and its weight ranges from 1 to 5.5 kilograms. As for marine animals, the smallest sea otter lives in the west South Africa and weighing 4.5 kilograms.

Compared to their body weight, these animals have large lungs, which allows them to stay under water for about four minutes. To get a portion of air, the animal does not have to completely float up: it is enough to stick the tip of its nose to the surface - this gives the otter the opportunity to completely fill its lungs with oxygen and return under water.

The animal has a wide muzzle and small ears. There are vibrissae on the muzzle and knees, thanks to which the predator detects the smallest movement in the water, while the animal receives almost all the information about the prey: its size, speed and where exactly it is moving. When a predator is underwater, its nostrils and ear openings close with valves, blocking the path of water.

The paws are short, five fingers are connected by swimming membranes, thanks to which the animal moves quickly in the water, and in pursuit of prey it can swim about three hundred meters under water. The hind legs are slightly longer than the front ones - this gives the animal the ability to swim excellently.

The fur of the otter is especially noteworthy: it is brown or gray-brownish in color, with a beautiful silver tint on its belly. Her guard hair is extremely coarse, and her undercoat is very soft and delicate to the touch. It is so dense that it makes otter fur absolutely impervious to water and provides excellent protection against hypothermia.

Otters do not leave their fur unattended and take care of it for a long time, combing and smoothing it: if they do not do this, the fur will be dirty, will no longer retain heat, and the animal will die from hypothermia (the otter has no fat reserves). From the outside it looks like the animal is playing, cleaning its fur from various contaminants. To fill their undercoat with air, otters often tumble and roll over in the water.

Habitat

Representatives of the mustelid family can be seen in many places on our planet. Their habitat covers almost all of Eurasia (except Holland, Switzerland and Arabian Peninsula), North Africa and America.

The river otter does not live everywhere: first of all, otters are extremely demanding of cleanliness, and therefore do not live in muddy water bodies. The second condition due to which otters will not linger near a reservoir is the lack of food: the animal feeds on crayfish, fish, mollusks and amphibians.

These animals do not always live in one place. In summer, they prefer to stay in one area, moving no more than six kilometers away from it. But in winter, it all depends on how much the water freezes: otters do not live on completely ice-covered reservoirs. If an area is completely frozen, they leave it and, in search of a suitable body of water, are able to travel dozens of kilometers and even cross mountains. The Caucasian otter rises the highest - it feels great at an altitude exceeding two and a half thousand meters.

Otters do not dig holes and settle in an abandoned beaver hole, in natural caves or depressions under the roots of coastal trees. The animal chooses a place for settlement carefully; it is very important that it is invisible and difficult to access, and it is possible to get to the home only along one single path; very rarely the animal makes additional passages. In addition to the main hole, the otter has several more shelters on site; they are located quite far from the water, at a distance of about a hundred meters - and in them you can sit out the period when the river overflows its banks and floods the surrounding area.

How do otters live?

Although many people consider otters to be nocturnal animals, they can easily lead an active lifestyle in the evening and even during the day if they believe that they are not in danger. Basically, these animals like to live alone, the only exception are females with children - young otters live with their mother for about a year and leave her only when she is about to reproduce again.

Among otters there are species that do not like loneliness. For example, the giant otter differs from its European relatives in that it is active during the day, is not very timid, lives in groups and hunts in packs: animals with different sides they drive the fish to one place.

Despite the fact that otters spend almost all their time in the water, many of them feel good on land, along which they move at a trot, leaving a winding trail, and often make one and a half meter long jumps. But on loose snow, due to their short limbs, they move with difficulty, at a gallop, hunched over greatly. If the snow is more or less compacted, otters alternate jumping with sliding on their belly.

These animals are also very energetic and playful. Not far from their holes you can find “roller coasters” - hills with a compacted trail left by the animal sliding on its belly. The animal climbs this hill several times a day and slides down with a running start. Another favorite pastime is catching one’s own tail or hind leg; often playing with the caught fish, after which it eats it.

In summer, when there is a lot of food in the reservoir, otters live in one place and do not move far from the site. The animal feeds on fish, frogs, crabs, and also catches rodents and even birds. The otter's hunting grounds at this time of year range from 2 to 18 kilometers along the river and 100 meters inland from the shore. In winter, if the fish leaves or the ice freezes, thereby making hunting difficult, the animal is quite capable of covering 15 to 20 kilometers in a day in search of food.

Living in the sea

The lifestyle of the sea otter is somewhat different from those living near fresh water bodies. Representatives of this species live mainly on the Pacific coast of South America and almost all of its subspecies (with the exception of the sea otter) are small in size: its weight ranges from 3 to 6 kilograms.

It is interesting that the sea otter avoids fresh water bodies and settles only on sea coast. The animal makes its home on a rocky coast, where strong winds blow, and a section of the coast is constantly flooded with water during high tides (the hole is located on the border of the high level tide).

Dense bushes or low trees usually grow along the shore - this gives her the opportunity to arrange two exits in her lair: one into the sea, the other onto land. Most species are characterized by a solitary lifestyle, so they set up their homes at a distance of at least two hundred meters from each other. True, they do not show aggression towards strangers who wander into their territory.

By its nature, the sea otter is very timid, and therefore it is not easy to see it, even though, unlike its river relative, it leads a diurnal lifestyle, staying in the water most of its time (without leaving the water, they turn over on their back and lay prey on the belly, even feed). When hunting, a sea otter can easily dive to a depth of about fifty meters (and does it very quickly - in 15-30 seconds).

The animal moves inland mainly when pursuing prey, and can move half a kilometer from the shore. The sea otter is very good at climbing the rocks located along the coast, and also really likes to rest in dense thickets.

Otter marten

The largest sea otter is considered to be the sea otter, which lives in northern latitudes: the length of its body, including its tail, ranges from a meter to one and a half meters. Despite the fact that it is slightly smaller than a two-meter giant otter, it is much heavier - a sea otter weighs on average 30 kilograms, and the weight of some specimens reaches 45 kilograms. It should be noted that the sea otter can only be called a sea otter conditionally: scientists claim that the sea otter is a species close to otters.

Unlike other species, the sea otter's guard hair is quite sparse, but its undercoat is extremely thick: the sea otter's fur is considered the densest of all mammals - 100 thousand hairs per square centimeter. The hind limbs of the animal, connected by membranes, resemble long flippers, the tail is short, and the paws, unlike ordinary otters, are clawless.

Like many sea otters, prefers a diurnal lifestyle: at night he mostly sleeps on the coast, but can also rest in the water, wrapped in seaweed so that he does not get carried away into the sea. During a hunt, a sea otter is quite capable of reaching speeds of up to 16 km/h and diving into the sea up to 55 meters. His favorite food is sea urchins and shellfish. But the sea otter doesn’t care at all about how to get fresh water: it gets it with food, and if necessary, it can also drink sea water.

The sea otter rarely moves on land, with difficulty, clumsily bending its body, and if possible, it descends from the cliff on its belly. In case of danger, it can run some distance and make several jumps.

Reproduction

Sexual maturity in these animals begins in the second/third year of life. Mating usually occurs in the spring, in water, and pregnancy lasts from one and a half to two and a half months. Usually two to four babies are born, and birth takes place in a burrow. The otter raises the cubs herself: despite the fact that the male is nearby at this time, after fertilization the female drives him away and does not feel a strong desire to see him near her. True, not everyone does this; for example, the eastern otter prefers to live in pairs and raise babies together with the male.

A newborn otter calf, like many mammals, is born blind, toothless, deaf, and covered in dark gray down. It begins to see quite late - after a month. By this time, their fur acquires the same color as that of their parents, and their weight reaches eight hundred grams. They begin to feed independently only from the age of two months, and begin to move a short distance from their mother only after reaching eight/nine months. True, by the age of one year the animals become completely independent, but for some time they live with their family.

Lutra and man

Unfortunately, in wildlife These predators are found less and less often, and therefore almost all of them are listed in the Red Book. An important role in this was played by the reduction of forests, which disrupted the hydrological regime, active fishing, which reduces the amount of food, and pollution of rivers, lakes, seas, oceans and other bodies of water on our planet. The animal suffered greatly due to its extremely warm, thick and soft fur - in some places they were almost completely exterminated by poachers.

To save this subspecies, zoologists often raise otters in artificial conditions, and when the animals reach a certain age, they are released into the wild. Some people even try to keep an otter in their home. Although these animals are extremely intelligent and easily tamed, the domestic otter is not suitable as a pet. best option: It’s not easy to maintain it, especially if you don’t live in a mansion that doesn’t have a pool or pond near it. A bath is not particularly suitable in this case, since the animal bathes often, after which it rolls on the floor to dry its fur (it prefers carpets)

The otter is a semi-aquatic animal and a real threat to fish. She swims and dives well, which makes it easy to keep up with any large and small fish.

Once upon a time, this animal inhabited almost the entire globe in places where fish were found. The only exceptions were Antarctica, Australia and some islands of the extreme South and North. Otters were common representatives of the river fauna of Europe, Asia, America and North Africa. But people saw them as competitors in fishing, and also northern peoples appreciated their waterproof fur. Otters were destroyed so mercilessly that today it is a great success to see the animal in their former habitats. Only in Alaska and Siberia can they be found everywhere.

Places where different types of otters live

The most famous and widespread European otter, or common river otter, inhabits North Africa, Europe (in addition to Switzerland and the Netherlands) and Asia, not found only on the Arabian Peninsula.

In South America there lives an otter that holds the record for length and weight among representatives of the subfamily - the giant otter, or. The length of its body without a tail reaches 150 cm, the tail is 70 cm long, and its body weight is about 30 kg. The main difference between the giant otter and other relatives is its flattened tail. Brazilian otters live small family groups V quiet rivers: Amazon and Orinoco. They communicate with each other using different sounds. To notify the family of their presence, otters scream sharply and emerge from the water.

Three more species of the otter subfamily inhabit the Central and South America, these are: southern, long-tailed and cat otter. IN North America The Canadian otter lives here, which differs from the common otter only in its large size and skull structure. The weight of the Canadian otter can reach 14 kg.

The spotted, white-throated, or spotted otter lives in sub-Saharan Africa; the Sumatran otter lives in Indochina and the Malay Archipelago; Southeast Asia- Indian otter. Also in these parts of the world you can see different types clawless otters

Otter's home

Otters spend most of their lives in the water in search of food. But to breed their offspring and rest after a hard day, they go to land. Otters live in burrows near the shores of the reservoir in which they live. The otter builds its home in such a way that it can immediately get into the water.

Mammals have adapted to life in land-air, soil and water environments; there are flying animals. In various natural and climatic zones, mammals inhabit forests, meadows, steppes, deserts, and mountains. They live along the banks of reservoirs, in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. Based on their lifestyle, mammals are divided into several ecological groups. Animals of the same ecological group have characteristic features structure, life activity, behavior (Fig. 218). (For an explanation of the name “ecological group,” see § 49, in the essay on ecological groups of birds.)

Typically terrestrial mammals inhabit forests and open spaces. They have a proportionally built strong body, well-developed high limbs, and a muscular neck. They move by walking, running and jumping. The signs of the group are most clearly manifested in fast-running animals.

Among land animals there are many herbivorous species - deer, horses, antelopes, goats, rams, etc. Mammals that feed on branches and leaves of trees have special adaptations. So, the giraffe has a well-developed neck. This allows him to pick leaves that are inaccessible to other land animals, to see well and detect enemies in time. Elephants have a powerful compact body, a massive head and a short neck that are compensated by a long, mobile trunk.

Predatory animals that lie in wait for prey, for example a lion, a tiger, a lynx, do not have such long legs as those of running ones. Predators pursuing prey, such as the wolf and cheetah, have relatively long legs.

Jumping mammals - hare, jerboa, kangaroo - have long, strong hind legs and short, weaker front legs.

In kangaroos, the weak front legs have lost their support when landing after a jump. But a long tail is developed, on which the animal leans when moving slowly, and during large jumps it plays the role of a balancer and steering wheel.

Terrestrial arboreal mammals live in forests and are associated with tree-shrub vegetation. They make nests in trees and feed both on the ground and in trees. These animals have an elongated, strong and flexible body, shortened limbs, armed with sharp claws.

Rice. 218. Animals leading different lifestyles: 1 - squirrel; 2 - red deer; 3 - bat; 4 - badger; 5 - mole; 6 - wild boar; 7 - fur seal; 8 - dolphin

This group includes pine marten, sable, squirrel, chipmunk. Many small terrestrial arboreal species have a well-developed tail with long spinous hairs, which facilitates gliding jumps. The flying squirrel has a leathery fold on the sides of its body, which improves its gliding capabilities.

Soil mammals are adapted to a burrowing lifestyle. Many species spend almost all their time underground, rarely appearing on the surface.

The body of shrews is short, ridged, the cervical region is invisible, and the tail is reduced. The fur is short, dense, without guard hairs, the legs are short with strong muscles and large claws. The auricles are reduced. Vision is poorly developed, and some underground animals (for example, the mole rat) have eyes hidden under the skin. Diggers have a well-developed sense of smell and touch. The mole digs the ground with strong, spade-shaped forelimbs turned outward and pushes the earth to the surface with its head. The mole rat digs the ground with large, protruding incisors.

Flying mammals have fully mastered air environment- adapted to flight. This group includes representatives of the order Chiroptera. Their forelimbs are transformed into movable wings. The flight membrane is stretched between the highly elongated bones of the hand of the forelimb, the trunk, the hind limb and even the tail. Fast-flying animals, such as the rufous noctule, have long and narrow wings; in slow-flying long-eared bats they are wide and blunt. In connection with flight, bats have well-developed pectoral muscles, which, like in birds, are attached to the keel of the sternum and the bones of the wings. Bats forage for insects in the air. Some of them, like birds, make seasonal migrations: they fly to wintering warm areas. All bats have well-developed hearing organs with large auricles that provide echolocation.

Aquatic and near-aquatic mammals - cetaceans and pinnipeds - are typical aquatic animals. Whales have completely lost contact with land. They have a streamlined fish-like body, the head merges with the body: the cervical region is absent. The organ of movement is the caudal fin. The forelimbs, modified into flippers, act as rudders. The hind limbs are reduced. The ears have disappeared, the external auditory canal is closed, the nasal openings are closed by valves, and there is no fur. Subcutaneous fat is well developed, providing thermal insulation. Due to feeding on planktonic organisms, baleen whales lost their teeth and developed a special filtering apparatus consisting of numerous horny plates, the so-called baleen.

Pinnipeds spend most of their lives in water. However, they have not lost contact with land: they come to land, to rookeries, during the breeding season.

Pinnipeds have two pairs of flippers that take part in movement in the water. The coat is reduced, although the cubs are born covered with thick fur. A thick layer of subcutaneous fat plays a thermal insulating role.

Mammals leading a semi-aquatic lifestyle belong to different systematic groups and use different foods. However, they have common features due to a semi-aquatic lifestyle: the limbs are equipped with swimming membranes, the tail acts as a rudder in the water, the coat is well developed, and there is a thick, warm undercoat. Animals that lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle carefully take care of their fur: they take it apart, comb it, and lubricate it with the oily secretion of the skin glands. Mammals that lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle include the platypus, muskrat, beaver, otter, muskrat, etc. They swim and dive perfectly in water, move freely on land, although they are noticeably inferior in speed to typical land animals.

Among terrestrial, soil, aquatic, semi-aquatic and flying animals there are representatives different squads and families. They have similar adaptive (adaptive) features to similar living conditions and constitute separate environmental groups.

Exercises based on the material covered

List the main ecological groups of animals. Indicate the main representatives of each of them.
What general features in external structure and behavior of running and jumping mammals in open spaces?
Name the features of adaptations to the tree-climbing lifestyle in animals using several examples.
What is characteristic of burrowing animals? Support with examples.
What common characteristics do aquatic mammals have?