Lifestyle of a river otter. Otter photo - otter animal

, or common otter, or or raspberry(lat. Lutra lutra) - view carnivorous mammals the mustelid family, leading a semi-aquatic lifestyle; one of three types genus of otters (Lutra). In the literature, the word “otter” usually means this species.

This is the only representative in our country of a large group of semi-aquatic predatory mammals from the mustelid family that live in fresh water bodies - rivers and lakes. Our otter's closest relatives live in the tropics South-East Asia and Africa.

Appearance

Otter - large animal with an elongated flexible body of a streamlined shape. Body length - 55-95 cm, tail - 26-55 cm, weight - 6-10 kg, an animal with a very characteristic appearance, reflecting its adaptability to life in water. The body is highly elongated and relatively thin, very flexible. The tail is long (about half the length of the body), very thick at the base and tapering towards the end. The legs are short, which is why the animal looks squat; the toes are connected by swimming membranes. The neck is quite long, only slightly narrower than the body. The head is small, narrow, strongly flattened, the eyes are oriented forward and upward (almost like those of seals), the rounded ears are short and widely spaced. In water, the external auditory canal is closed by a special valve.

Fur color: dark brown above, light, silver below. The guard hairs are coarse, but the underfur is very thick and delicate. The density of the fur coat can reach 51 thousand per 1 cm2. Such a high density of the undercoat makes the fur completely impermeable to water and perfectly insulates the animal’s body, protecting it from hypothermia. The otter's body structure is adapted for swimming underwater: flat head, short legs, a long tail.

In summer, the fur is only slightly shorter and less frequent than in winter. The covering hairs in their terminal third are wide and flattened, as if covering the downy hairs, protecting them from getting wet in water. The feet and hands are bare underneath.

Spreading

The most widespread representative of the otter subfamily. It is found over a vast area covering almost all of Europe (except the Netherlands and Switzerland), Asia (except the Arabian Peninsula) and North Africa. In Russia it is found everywhere, including in the Far North in the Magadan region, in Chukotka.

Lifestyle and nutrition

Water is vital for the otter: in it it obtains food and seeks salvation from danger. But the land also has otters in its life great importance: on it the animal makes shelters and reproduces, rests, and makes transitions between bodies of water. In our area, the main factor on which the presence of an otter depends is the presence of bodies of water that do not completely freeze in cold weather: in winter, ice holes and “vents” through which it penetrates into the water are important for its survival. Thick ice cover is an insurmountable barrier for the otter and makes it impossible to obtain underwater food (and this predator almost never hunts on land).

The otter leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle, swimming, diving and getting food in the water. An otter can stay underwater for up to 2 minutes.

It lives mainly in forest rivers rich in fish, less often in lakes and ponds. Found on the sea coast. It prefers rivers with whirlpools, with rapids that do not freeze in winter, with washed-out banks littered with windbreaks, where there are many reliable shelters and places for making burrows. Sometimes it makes its lairs in caves or, like a nest, in thickets near the water. The entrance holes of its burrows open under water.

The hunting grounds of one otter in summer comprise a section of the river ranging from 2 to 18 km long and about 100 m deep coastal zone. In winter, when fish stocks are depleted and wormwood freezes, it is forced to wander, sometimes directly crossing high watersheds. At the same time, the otter descends from the slopes, rolling down on its belly, leaving a characteristic trace in the form of a gutter. On ice and snow it travels up to 15-20 km per day.

Where the otter is not pursued by hunters, it, unlike the mink, prefers rivers with clear water, fast current and rocky beds, rivers with steep overhanging banks, bypassing reservoirs with standing or slowly flowing opaque water, silted or overgrown with aquatic vegetation. In quiet places, this animal even settles on the outskirts of large cities. However, in places where the otter is actively hunted, it prefers the most remote places - forests with dense undergrowth, reed fields, intertwined tugai trees. There, the otter settles in small rivers with cluttered riverbeds, rubble and creases of dead wood. This sometimes prevents the otter from hunting, but it also makes such places less accessible to humans.

The habitat of the river otter, individual or family, is small, limited to a narrow coastal strip, the width of which rarely exceeds 200-300 meters. In waters rich in food, this predator lives sedentarily in an area stretching along the river for 2-5 kilometers. Where there is little food, the territory occupied by the animal may consist of separate hunting areas, which it visits once every 2-3 days. The owner marks certain places in his territory with urine and excrement (which is why they are sometimes not entirely correctly called “otter latrines”), but relations between neighbors are quite peaceful. And during unfavorable periods of life, the boundaries between habitats practically disappear: animals gather in places where there is more food or it is more accessible, they hunt near each other, and use the same convenient approaches under the ice.

In difficult times, the otter turns into an avid traveler, and in different regions the reasons prompting the animal to change its place of residence can be completely different. In the north, the otter moves away due to unfavorable weather conditions. ice regime: the animal actually leads a semi-nomadic lifestyle in winter, moving from ice hole to ice hole, from one body of water to another at a distance of up to 30 kilometers, in some places even up to 60 kilometers. In the lower reaches of rivers, where floods are high, the otter is forced to make spring migrations and returns to its habitable places only when the flood waters recede. IN Central Asia migrations, on the contrary, are caused by summer shallowing and drying up of water bodies: the otter goes to where it remains more water. On Far East the movements of otters from one river to another are usually associated with the spawning run of red fish: in the middle of summer, the fish-eating predator rises after its prey to the upper reaches of the rivers, and in the fall, after it, “rolls down” to the lower reaches.

In its habitat, the otter builds one permanent burrow and several temporary shelters and shelters. She usually digs a hole in a coastal cliff, even if it is not high; if possible, borrow someone else's. In winter, the otter's refuge is located near a polynya or under the canopy of a steep bank under the surface of the ice, where an empty space forms between the ice and the receding water. The hole of the hole opens under water at a depth of about half a meter. An inclined passage up to 2 meters long leads to the nesting chamber, which is always located above the water level and lined with dry grass, leaves, and moss. From the chamber to the surface of the ground, the otter breaks 1-2 small holes that serve for ventilation. In low-lying areas where the banks are low and high level groundwater do not allow the digging of suitable burrows, it makes shelters in high creases of reeds or dead wood, in piles of “fin” half-covered with sand or dried silt - trunks and branches of trees washed ashore. In well-protected secluded corners, the otter breeds its cubs, even in ground dens built under the eversion.
The otter can be active around the clock, but is most often seen at dusk in the morning and evening. Activity increases noticeably on quiet moonlit nights, and in winter when the weather is mild. During the darkest period autumn nights and in winter, the predator often fishes during daylight hours, when it is better visible underwater. Otters are least willing to leave shelters in strong winds, especially if there is a blizzard or rain.

On land, the otter, moving at a walk, trot or jump, hunches heavily and therefore seems somewhat clumsy. However, a person is unlikely to catch up with a running otter, especially on a sticky bank or snow: the animal can reach speeds of up to 25 km/h. In water, the otter's movements are fast, dexterous and confident. When swimming slowly, it usually rows with its paws, and when moving quickly, it presses its legs to its body and moves forward with energetic snake-like movements of its entire body and tail. It dives instantly, often with a strong splash, but if necessary, it goes under water completely silently. When in danger, the otter takes in air in a fraction of a second; sometimes 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 path of a diving otter can be traced by the bubbles of air it exhales.

This predator is very secretive and careful, especially on land. Before leaving the water, the animal must inspect itself, and usually cover the places where it goes ashore with fins or branches. Walking around its area, the otter sometimes walks along the shore and sometimes swims. She prefers the waterway, going downstream, and bypasses areas with rifts and rapids on dry ground. Rising along the bank upstream of a winding river, this intelligent animal often takes a shortcut, crossing bends at the narrowest point. The paths of such regular crossings are marked with clearly visible paths along which the otter runs quickly without stopping. Having reached the water, the animal quickly leaves the path, and simply rolls down the steep bank on its belly. The paths trampled by an otter are easy to distinguish from those laid by its neighbors - river beavers: they usually stretch along the shore near the water, and beavers always go perpendicular coastline. Otter tracks on wet coastal soil or on snow are also difficult to confuse with others: the paws leave imprints of the interdigital membranes, and between the double chain of tracks there is a line from the dragging tail.

The otter is very active. Possessing a cheerful disposition, she devotes a lot of time to various kinds of games, especially loves to ride from heights. Both children and adults, having fun, slide down the coastal slope many times and splash into the water. In such places, “roller slides” are formed - slopes smoothly polished by the bodies of animals on steep banks, ranging from 5 to 20 meters in length. On dense snow, from time to time the animal takes a running start and slides on its belly, traveling 2-3 meters, and all 20-30 meters downhill, leaving a characteristic groove behind it. However, sometimes this is not only a game, but also a method of squeezing out fur, which is also characteristic of mink.

The river otter is a typical fish eater. In the Volga delta, it prefers carp, as well as pike; it is easy for the otter to hunt them in the almost stagnant water of countless channels overgrown with reeds. IN northern rivers her favorite “dish” are char and grayling, which live mainly on the rifts, and the inhabitants of the pools, whitefish and ide, do not come to her table so often. On the Murmansk coast, the predator feeds mainly on cod and brown trout, and on the Kola Peninsula - trout and the same pike. The otter prefers small fish to large ones; in spawning areas it readily catches grown fry. However, one burbot caught by an otter in Pechora weighed 4 kilograms.

The otter's winter food is mainly frogs, which it hardly touches during the ice-free period. So, in the lower reaches of the Volga in winter time these amphibians make up about half of its diet, but in the spring, when frogs are more active and no less available, the otter still prefers to hunt fish. When there is a lack of basic food, the animal eats large mollusks, mainly toothless mollusks. In rivers where there are a lot of crayfish, she happily feeds on these aquatic inhabitants, and in the south of Siberia she picks up caddisfly larvae that swarm there in the summer from the bottom of mountain rivers. Only as an exception does it catch near water small mammals(water vole, shrew) and birds (ducks, rails).

The main methods of otter hunting for fish are stalking and stalking. On shallow rifts, the predator guards its prey on stones or fallen trees, and sometimes on the shore. An otter and a water rat are watching at its holes. It pursues mainly schooling and not very active fish, which are easier to catch up with. The predator often visits “fish holes” - pools of calm water, in which sedentary fish accumulate for the night. Near these places on the shore there are almost always otter forays. In deep places, it sometimes attacks fish or waterfowl from below, swimming up to it on its back. Underwater, she always grabs prey with her mouth, not with her paws.

An otter normally eats about 1 kilogram of fish per day. When catching small things, it is forced to hunt in several stages, but if it manages to catch large prey, the otter is satisfied until the next night. Having grabbed the fish, the predator usually eats it on the shore or on a stone protruding from the water, in winter - on the edge of the ice hole. As an avid gourmet, she eats only freshly caught prey, does not hide uneaten leftovers and does not return to them. Even the numerous corpses of spawning salmon carried ashore by the current are almost never touched by the otter. That’s why she doesn’t stock up for future use: stories about finding “fish warehouses” allegedly built by an otter are the fruit of idle speculation.

Social structure and reproduction

Sexual maturity in otters occurs in the second or third year of life.

Otter breeding is not confined to a specific season of the year, especially in areas with temperate or warm climate. Thus, in the south of Siberia, hunters found young otter the size of a cat in both July and December. During the rutting period, males, usually silent, emit a peculiar whistle. Intrauterine development is delayed, childbirth occurs 7-8 months after mating. The fertility of this animal is low - most often 2-4 cubs are born. Otters develop quite quickly: they begin to see the light within 9-10 days, and by 10 months they weigh about 4 kilograms. The cubs spend the entire first year of life with the female. She is very attached to the young, in case of danger she protects them, sometimes she even attacks first, including people. One day, a mother with two cubs, caught by fishermen on a boat in a narrow channel, boldly rushed to protect her offspring, so that they had to fight her off with a pole, which she was pretty much bitten by. Only when people left the channel did the female return to the cubs, left in the thick of the flooded bushes.

Baby otters are called pups.

Economic importance

Although in nature the otter avoids humans, in captivity it is easily tamed and is extremely friendly. IN southern countries local residents sometimes use tamed otters to catch fish.
This predator has beautiful, durable and warm fur. Previously, the otter was hunted very intensively, which led to sad consequences for it. For example, in the southern Kuril Islands, hunters completely destroyed the otter. At one time, the otter was exterminated for the supposed harm allegedly caused to fish farms, although in fact the basis of its diet is the so-called “trash fish”, which does not have special significance for a person. In recent decades, hunting for it has been limited everywhere. And yet in European countries its number is steadily declining. The number of otter is extremely negatively affected by deforestation in large areas and the resulting decrease in river water levels, as well as irrigation work - drainage, flow regulation.

In some areas of Bangladesh, otters are used as hunting animals - they drive fish into fishermen's nets (at the same time, adult individuals are kept on long leather leashes, and young animals swim freely - they still will not swim away from their parents).

Population status and conservation

Hunting and use in agriculture pesticides have reduced the number of otters. In 2000, the common otter was listed as a "vulnerable" species on the IUCN Red List.

The otter, or the common otter, or the river otter, or the raspberry, is a species of predatory mammal of the mustelid family, leading a semi-aquatic lifestyle; one of three species of the genus otter (Lutra). In the literature, the word “otter” usually means this species. According to statistical data in Russia in 2006, the otter population was about 15 thousand individuals. In America, in Alaska and Washington state, as well as Colombia, there are approximately 70 thousand, 2.5 thousand off the coast of California and about ten in Japan. There are approximately 88 thousand otters in the world, which is only a fifth of the number in the mid-18th century.

Appearance

The otter is a large animal with an elongated, flexible, streamlined body. Body length - 55-95 cm, tail - 26-55 cm, weight - 6-10 kg. The paws are short, with webbed swimming. The tail is muscular and not fluffy. Fur color: dark brown above, light, silver below. The guard hairs are coarse, but the underfur is very thick and delicate. The structure of its body is adapted for swimming underwater: a flat head, short legs, a long tail and non-wetting fur.

Spreading

The most widespread representative of the otter subfamily. It is found over a vast area, covering almost all of Europe (except the Netherlands and Switzerland), Asia (except the Arabian Peninsula) and North Africa. In Russia it is absent only in the Far North.

Lifestyle

The otter leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle, swimming, diving and getting food in the water. It lives mainly in forest rivers rich in fish, less often in lakes and ponds. Found on the sea coast. It prefers rivers with whirlpools, with rapids that do not freeze in winter, with washed-out banks littered with windbreaks, where there are many reliable shelters and places for making burrows. Sometimes it makes its lairs in caves or, like a nest, in thickets near the water. The entrance holes of its burrows open under water. The hunting grounds of one otter in summer comprise a section of the river ranging from 2 to 18 km long and about 100 m deep into the coastal zone. In winter, when fish stocks are depleted and wormwood freezes, it is forced to wander, sometimes directly crossing high watersheds. At the same time, the otter descends from the slopes, rolling down on its belly and leaving a characteristic trace in the form of a gutter. On ice and snow it travels up to 15-20 km per day. The otter feeds mainly on fish (carp, pike, trout, roach, gobies), and prefers small fish. In winter it eats frogs, and quite regularly eats caddisfly larvae. In summer, in addition to fish, it catches water voles and other rodents; In some places it systematically hunts waders and ducks.

Lives almost throughout the entire territory former USSR. Inhabits freshwater bodies of all landscapes; in the Far East it is also found in the sea. coast. Prefers rivers with clear water, fast currents, rocky beds and banks with big amount shelters Polygamy. Leads a territorial lifestyle. Relationships of dominance and submission are possible between neighboring animals. Il. habitat area from 4-12 to 300 hectares. There are several permanent burrows and temporary shelters on the site. Olfactory (scent marks) and acoustic signals are of great importance in communication. It makes burrows in root cavities. Adapted to the floor water image life. Basic nutrition -freshwater fish, eats frogs, birds and small semi-aquatic mammals. Capable of reproducing throughout the year. In Russia, the rut is usually from February to August, whelping in May - October. Pregnancy is about 60 days. The female can whelp twice a year. There are usually 2-3 cubs in a litter. The weight of newborns is 77-133 g with a body length of 140-180 mm. Cubs are born blind, with closed ear canals, and without teeth. They mature at 30 days. Sexual maturity is reached at about 2.5 years of age.

TO underground mammals are predominantly rodents. Among them there is a full range of transitions from burrowers - ground squirrels, marmots, voles, etc., who spend a significant part of their lives on the surface of the earth, to diggers - mole rats, zokors and a number of others, almost never coming to its surface.

Typical burrowing forms are also found in other orders: the marsupial mole - among the marsupials; mole, African golden mole - among insectivores; armadillos - from edentates; The aardvark is also a burrower. Shrews are characterized by reduced eyes and auricles, a rolled body shape, a short tail or even complete absence his and low fur, devoid of lint. Some of them make their passages with the help of short but extremely powerful forelimbs, for example, the mole, the zokor, others use their teeth for this, for example, the mole rat, the mole rat and a number of other rodents. It is noteworthy that in some representatives of the latter group the lower jaw can move to an additional articular surface located behind the “normal” one, and in this case the animal can act with its upper incisors like a hoe.

TO arboreal mammal This includes, first of all, the vast majority of monkeys and prosimians, a number of rodents and marsupials. There are arboreal forms among insectivores (tupaya), and among edentates (sloths, prehensile-tailed anteaters), and among carnivores. Arboreal mammals are characterized by grasping or prehensile paws, as in monkeys, prosimians, and many marsupials; often a prehensile tail, for example, most broad-nosed monkeys, some marsupials (cuscus and possums), arboreal forms of anteaters, lizards and porcupines, among the carnivores - South American noses. Marsupial flying squirrels, woolly winged squirrels, among rodents - real flying squirrels and African spiny-tailed squirrels have a skin fold on the sides of the body, which increases its “bearing surface” when jumping.

To the present flying animals include only bats, of which the majority are at the same time associated with tree plantationsniyami. Such are fruit bats, feeding on fruits and resting among the branches, many insectivores the bats spending the day in hollows. Of our forms, the most associated with trees is the rufous noctule, living exclusively in hollows.

Aquatic mammals, perhaps the most diverse of all the main environmental groups mammals: there is a full range of transitions from such forms as mink, polar bear, water vole, which have morphological adaptations associated with semi-aqueous life, are barely expressed, right down to whales and dolphins, which have the organization of strictly aquatic animals, quickly dying out of water.

Semi-aquatic image Many mammals from a wide variety of orders lead their lives: from monotremes - the platypus, from marsupials - the South American swimmer (the only aquatic marsupial), from insectivores - our water shrew and the African otter shrew, from rodents - the water vole, muskrat, nutria, capybara and a number of others , among predators - mink, otter, polar bear, and among ungulates - hippopotamus. Even more aquatic animals are the beaver, and even more so the muskrat and sea otter, or Kamchatka sea ​​otter. With the exception of the hippopotamus, all these animals are characterized by extremely thick fur, sharply divided into awns and undercoat. The auricles are either absent or greatly reduced. Many hind limbs are equipped with well-developed swimming membranes (muskrat, beaver, platypus, which also have membranes on their front legs), and in sea otters they have turned into real flippers. The tail, at least in smaller forms, is well developed.

As is known, many species of mammals have only partially mastered water element. Water helps some of them to avoid danger, others get food in it, but in all cases the life of these animals remains closely connected with land. Among the mammals of the domestic fauna, some representatives of insectivores, rodents and carnivores lead such a lifestyle. They have adapted to living both on land and in water at the same time, that is, they are semi-aquatic animals. Among insectivores, this is primarily the muskrat; among rodents, it is the water vole, muskrat, nutria, and beaver; Carnivores include mink, river otter, sea otter (or sea otter) and polar bear. They inhabit various inland reservoirs - rivers and their oxbows overgrown with aquatic vegetation, lake shores, and are also found in swamps. Some semi-aquatic rodents, such as the water vole, often go far from the water into fields in search of food. Semi-aquatic animals swim and dive beautifully, while on land many of them move no worse than terrestrial species of mammals.

A stronger connection with water is observed in representatives of marine semi-aquatic animals - pinnipeds and sea otters. Their adaptations to the aquatic lifestyle have gone so far that they feel much less confident on land than in water. However, unlike the other group marine mammals- cetaceans, they have maintained a strong connection with land, where they breed and feed their offspring, molt and rest. For these purposes, they use islands, coastal cliffs, sand spits or floating ice floes, as well as the coast of continents and coastal ice.

In landscape and environmental relations sea ​​coasts should be allocated into a separate, intrazonal unit, corresponding to the rank of the zone. The main factor characterizing all coastal habitats of animals is their location at the junction of two environments - water and land. Large group animals find the best nesting, feeding and protective conditions here. Therefore, it is for sea ​​coasts Such mass gatherings of animals are typical at the most crucial time of their lives - during breeding periods, such as bird colonies and rookeries of sea animals. Let us recall that in the generalized concept " sea ​​animal"it is customary to include, first of all, numerous representatives of the order of pinnipeds, as well as the sea otter from the order of carnivores, which was once widespread on the shores of many island systems and continents in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. As for pinnipeds, even now there are a total of about twenty million of them .

The active use of water as a habitat caused the appearance of a number of morphological features and specific behavioral traits in semi-aquatic animals. Life in water and on land, that is, in conditions of different physical characteristics environments could not but influence the methods of intraspecific communication between animals. In this regard, first of all, the question arises of whether this is reflected in the sound communication system of semi-aquatic animals, and also whether the hearing and sound signaling of these animals depend on the degree of their adaptation to aquatic environment? To do this, we will consider hearing and sound signaling in representatives of two different groups of mammals - rodents and pinnipeds.

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

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 forests, fields, mountains, rivers. You need to know the habits of animals and not interfere with their natural lifestyle.

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 bodies of water with clear water, fast currents and rocky riverbeds. Because of its passion for rivers, people call it list (previously they called it poreshnya). The river otter's habitat, individual or family, is small and limited to the shoreline, the width of which rarely exceeds 200-300 meters.

In difficult 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 a 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 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 large 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 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.

• footprints

Footprints 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 region), 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 inclined 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 breed otters in cells. 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.