Oriental Small-clawed Otter

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Oriental Small-clawed Otter
Conservation status
Near Threatened
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Mustelidae Subfamily: Lutrinae Genus: Aonyx Species: A. cinerea
Binomial name
Aonyx cinerea Illiger, 1815

The Oriental Small-clawed Otter, Aonyx cinerea also known as Asian Small-clawed Otter is the smallest otter in the world.

The Oriental Small-clawed Otter is found in mangrove swamps and freshwater wetlands of Bangladesh, southern India, China, Taiwan, Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines,preferring to live near water.

The full grown otters measure approximately 0.9m from nose to tail tip, and can weigh up to 5kg.They feed on fish, frogs, crabs, crayfish and shellfish.

These otters are especially distinct for their forepaws, as the claws do not extend above the fleshy end pads of their toes and fingers. These attributes give them human-like proficiency and coordination to the point which they can use their paws to feed on mollusks, crabs and other small aquatic animals.

The Oriental Small-clawed Otter lives in extended family groups with only the alpha pair breeding and previous offspring helping to raise the young.

Due to ongoing habitat loss, pollution and hunting in some areas, the Oriental Small-clawed Otter is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

This species was formerly thought to be the only member of the genus Amblonyx, however it has recently been confirmed as Aonyx after mitochrondrial DNA analysis (Koepfli and Wayne, 1998). There also have been issues with the species name for the Oriental Small-clawed Otter and can be found as cinereus and cinerea. However the current IUCN name is Aonyx cinereus, while "Mammal Species of the World" lists it as cinerea.

[edit] Video

[edit] Gallery

Group sleeping at the National Zoo in Washington, DC	Swimming asian small-clawed otter	Adult and young Asian Small-clawed Otters at feeding time in Edinburgh Zoo	Adult and young Asian Small-clawed Otters feeding
	Otters at Canberra zoo

[edit] External links

• IUCN Red List
• Oriental Small Clawed Otter Factsheet
• Oriental Small Clawed Otter Gallery
• [1] The Otter Trust