What Do Animals Eat?

What Do Otters Eat?

Posted In: Mammals.

Otters can be found all around the world apart from Australia and Antarctica. There are 13 species of otter, and all of them are inhabitants of our seas and rivers.

Sea otter eating a crabSea otter eating a crab. Photo by .

About otters

They are cute, friendly little creatures living in water and on land as well. They are not considered a threat to humans, when cornered however, they can bite. Otters are at home in sea water and freshwater streams as well as they dig their little dens on the river banks. Some of them are nocturnal hunters and they catch their prey under the water.

A giant otter eating a catfishA giant otter eating a catfish. Photo by .

An otter’s diet

The otter’s diet consists of frogs, crabs, and sometimes birds and rodents too. They consume a lot of fish, which is their favorite food, but since otters are opportunists, they eat any little creature they come across, such as baby turtles and crayfish. They have a very interesting way of eating hard things, for example if they find something that has a hard shell, they will float on their backs with their prey on their belly and hit it with a rock until it cracks open, after this they can enjoy the delicacy. These adorable little creatures use their whiskers to locate food and usually hunt alone, sometimes they group together to catch larger prey such as beavers.

Otters can eat a lot of food

Otters are small creature, but they can eat up to 20% of their body weight in just one day. They spend quite a large amount of time searching for food every day. In case they don’t find enough food in their natural habitat, they have to solve this problem in a different location.

A young male sea otter feeding on clamsA young male sea otter feeding on clams. Photo by .

Not every otter is lucky

Unfortunately in some places, their natural habitat has been destroyed by pollution and they can’t find enough food to survive, thus resulting in illness, which can easily lead to death.

Danger otters face everyday looking for food

In the past, they were hunted by humans for their thick fur. Nowadays, global warming is seriously affecting their lives and due to this fact, they can’t find food as efficiently as they used to. In addition, more and more otters are being eaten by sharks and other predators. These large predators can run out of food as well and they often resort to otters. Humans too are considered a threat to otters since they are careless about small creatures and often don’t notice them. Otters are often caught up in fishing nets, injured by the boats of the fisherman. Humans do pollute the water and otters have less chances of surviving from chemical and metal poisoning.