South American River Otter - Basics!

South American /Southern River Otter 

(Lontra provocax)

The posts this week are brief overviews of EACH of the otter species, focusing on recent information about each species and a vid or 2... 

 

This otter shares large parts of it's the marine otter's marine habitat. 

Southern River Otters tend to have a very short life span. Few live to maturity, and only 1% live to 10 years of age. They are generally solitary, coming together mainly to mate. The female raises the pups alone, and there are no social groups beyond this.   They have territories like other otters, but the size of these territories is unknown and it appears that they are not particularly defensive of them.

Status: Endangered and Decreasing

South American River otters live in fresh and salt water habitats along the lower (primarily western) coast of South America, in red in the map on the left.







The habitat range of the Marine Otter overlaps in Chile with the other "most southerly" Lontra-otter, the South American River otter.














Southern River otter in captivity, eating.

If you want more in-depth reading a few research articles you could explore on these otters includes:

>   Understanding the inter-specific dynamics of two co-existing predators in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago: the native southern river otter and the exotic American. AEJ Valenzuela, AR Rey, L Fasola, A Schiavini - Biological invasions, 2013

>   Diversity of mtDNA in southern river otter (Lontra provocax) from Argentinean Patagonia

D Centrón, B Ramirez, L Fasola… - Journal of Am Genetic Assoc, 2008

>   Phylogeography of the Patagonian otter Lontra provocax: adaptive divergence to marine habitat or signature of southern glacial refugia? JA Vianna, G Medina-Vogel, BMC, 2011