8th April 2024
Otters
hi all!! this is an intro to how i'll be laying out my freak infodumps. they will essentially be about any topic i feel like talking about, or that i need to get off my chest.
a lot of my special interests include animals or games, so expect a LOT of talk about those.
this post will be about otters, but in the future expect a lot of cat breeds. cats are my favourite animal!
otters, or lutrinae, are mammals found in every continent bar australia and antarctica. they are members of the weasel family. the average otter will range from around 2 to 6 feet, and weigh 10 to 75 pounds. they have small ears, short noses, long bodies and tails, and soft but dense fur. otters actually have the densest fur of any animal, with as many as a million hairs per square inch. their webbed feet and powerful tails act as rudders, which make them incredibly strong swimmers. their nostrils and ears close to keep water out, and their fur is waterproof. otters spend a lot of time carefully grooming their undercoat and fur to seal off water since they're not like most seagoing mammals, which are covered in a fatty layer.
most other species come ashore to give birth in dens, but sea otters give birth in the water. their babies, also known as pups or kittens, will stay with their mothers until they are up to a year old.
otters and other mustelidae were once hunted for their fur to the point of near extinction. nowadays they are still at risk, but from habitat destruction and pollution.
otters are expert hunters that eat fish, crustaceans, and various other critters. they have an interesting approach to opening shellfish: they will float on their backs and place a rock on their chest, and smash it open.
when otters nap, they will entangle themselves in kelp so that they don't float away. sometimes they intertwine their feet with another otter so that they don't lose each other. river otters are especially playful.