Details

COLNH:1970.17.1

Colchester Collections

skeleton, skull, European otter

This is the skull and skeleton of a female otter. The otter is one of the UKs top predators, feeding mainly on fish, waterbirds, frogs, toads and crustaceans such as crayfish. They are well adapted to a life on the water with webbed feet and dense fur to keep them warm. They are able to close their ears and nose when they swim underwater. The recovery of the otter population across Britain has been one of the great conservation successes of the past fifty years. Having been threatened with extinction in the late 1950’s, numbers have slowly recovered, and following a ban on hunting in 1978 and the banning of agricultural chemicals that polluted rivers in the early 1990s, otters can now be found in every British county.

Zoology, Animals, Mammals

Lutra lutra (European Otter), Mustelidae (Mustelid)

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