The Eurasian otter | 台北市立動物園資訊網

2020年6月16日—Althoughconsideredrare,ottersarewidespreadintheUKandliveinavarietyofaquatichabitats,suchaslakes,rivers,streams,marshes,and ...

Since the pre-industrial times, otters have declined by 87% around the world. Once widespread throughout the British Isles, numbers began dropping around 1957, and by the mid 1970’s their once high population became limited to small fragmented populations.

A range of factors influenced their decline and still affect otters currently, including habitat loss, pollution, human disturbance, falling fish stocks, insecticides, the illegal wildlife trade and hunting.

Otters are what can be referred to as bio indicators, which means they are heavily affected by the quality of their environment. They need clean, good quality water, so when pesticides being used in agriculture in the 20th century leaked into rivers contaminating fish, there were serious impacts on otters.

These pesticides were banned, and in the early 1980’s a reintroduction programme was established to help otters return to thei...