Nouveautés 2015 : Asian small-clawed otters !

Five Asian small-clawed otters just arrived at the Parc Animalier d'Auvergne. These otters live in South-Eastern Asia and are the smallest of their family. This specie is also the least aquatic of them all. This is the reason why its paws are less webbed than those of other otter species, which allows them more dexterity and makes it easier to catch crabs, mollusks...

Its hairs are mainly brown, though its stomach, cheeks and whiskers are cream colored. It is usually 70 cm high and its tail can be as long as 30 cm. Small-clawed otters weighs a average of 6kg. They have the particularities to have a more flattened head and to be extremely flexible.

These adorable little creatures are also very fast and curious. They usually live in groups of twelve members or so, in which there is a dominant couple, and they mainly communicate with sounds and odors.

The specie is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN's red list of threatened species, partly because of human activities, which destroy its natural habitat (deforestation, destruction of mangroves...).