Otter
Lutra canadensis
Jackson Zoological Park

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Subfamily: Lutrinae

Otters are aquatic or marine carnivorous mammals, believed to have been on earth for 30 million years, otters are members of the large and diverse family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, polecats, badgers, and others. With 13 species in 7 genera, otters have an almost worldwide distribution.

Otters have a dense layer (1,000 hairs/mm², 650,000 hairs per sq. in) of very soft underfur which, protected by their outer layer of long guard hairs, keeps them dry under water and traps a layer of air to keep them warm. All otters have long, slim, streamlined bodies of extraordinary grace and flexibility, and short limbs; in most cases they have webbed paws. Most have sharp claws to grasp prey, but the short-clawed otter of southern Asia has only vestigial claws, and two closely-related species of African otter have no claws at all: these species live in the often muddy rivers of Africa and Asia and locate their prey by touch. Otters live in most areas of the world, The only continents where otters do not live are Australia and Antarctica