With birthing time approaching, roughly a year after mating, the female river otter retreats to her den. Typically, she delivers two to four eight- to 10-inch, five-ounce blind, toothless and helpless “kits,” which will remain sequestered in the den with their mother for two and a half...
The maintenance of groups, especially during the mating season, is a function of reproductive status and age, with older animals withdrawing from the social network during that time. What other phenotypic characters may contribute to the formation and maintenance of river otter groups merit future ...
This is the only truly marine otter along the west and southwest coasts of South America, although there are southern river otters (Lontra provocax) along some parts of the coast and marine otters do enter rivers on occasion. However, marine otters tend to occur in exposed outer coast habi...
Sea otter mating behavior is aggressive and can further inflict physiological and traumatic stress to females, thereby reducing their foraging efficiency. Other factors such as infections, disease, bio-toxin ingestion and anthropogenic disturbance can also decrease fitness among adult females and increase ...