Giant otter
| Giant otter | ||||||||||||
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Giant otter ( Pteronura brasiliensis ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Pteronura | ||||||||||||
| JE Gray , 1837 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Pteronura brasiliensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Gmelin , 1788) |
The giant otter ( Pteronura brasiliensis ) is a species of otter that is widespread in the Amazon rainforest . The river systems it is native to include the Amazon , Orinoco, and Río de la Plata .
features
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With a length of two meters (70 cm of which tail) and a weight of over 20 kg, it is by far the largest otter living in freshwater. The sea otter is significantly heavier, but shorter than the giant otter.
Way of life
In contrast to the distantly related European otter , the giant otter is diurnal and sociable. It is found along the South American rivers in groups of five to eight, rarely up to twenty individuals. In the water it hunts for fish , but it also eats water birds , mice and bird eggs. The hunt is organized in the group, that is, the members of a group of otters drive the fish towards each other.
A litter includes one to five young. The large number of enemies of young otters (e.g. caimans , jaguars ) makes two births a year necessary. After ten months, the young have reached the size of the parent animals and are sexually mature at the age of two. The life expectancy of the giant otter is around ten years.
The smaller South American otter lives in the same habitat as the giant otter and is more like the European otter in size and behavior.
breed
Outside of South America , only a few giant otters live in zoos or animal parks . Sustained breeding successes have been achieved since 1990 at the Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, where giant otters were kept as early as 1961 and a giant otter was born and raised outside of South America for the first time, and the Philadelphia Zoo. Since 2005, after many years of absence, the successful keeping and breeding in Hamburg has been continued with an imported pair from South America. In Zoo Dortmund reach since 2004 four rare breeding success with a total of eleven successfully reared pups after numerous young animals had died in recent years.
The good breeding results in Dortmund and Hamburg made it possible to establish new breeding pairs in several European zoos, for example in Leipzig, Duisburg, Doue la Fontaine, in the English Chestnut Center, the Chester Zoo and in the South Lakes Wild Animal Park.
Giant otters were born for the first time in 2009 at the Doue la Fontaine Zoo in France; The Duisburg Zoo succeeded in breeding for the first time on December 14, 2009. As early as 1881, Leipzig was the first European zoo to hold a giant otter; this species has been back there since 2009.
supporting documents
- ^ Rheinische Post Duisburg. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 2, 2010 ; accessed on March 31, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ International Giant Otter Studbook. (PDF; 242 kB) Accessed December 16, 2009 .
- ↑ Current projects: Giant otter. (No longer available online.) In: Tierpark Hagenbeck. Archived from the original on April 16, 2010 ; Retrieved October 16, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Paula Noonan, Siobhan Prout, Virginia Hayssen: Pteronura brasiliensis (Carnivora: Mustelidae). Mammalian Species 49 (953), Sep. 8, 2017; Pp. 97-108. doi : 10.1093 / mspecies / sex012
Web links
- Pteronura brasiliensis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: N. Duplaix u. a., 2008. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
- Freely accessible literature collection on giant otters (English)