Otter size (1 Viewer)

[JTweedie]

Bit of a long shot here, but having watched loads of documentaries I was wondering if it's possible that coastal otters (I'm talking otters around the UK, not sea otters that you get elsewhere) are slightly bigger than those found more inland on rivers? I've seen them at the coast in real life but unfortunately not inland. But I just get this impression from TV shows that the coastal ones are bigger. I don't know if their populations ever interbreed or whether they're isolated from each other, but if the latter, couldn't that contribute to a potential size difference if it exists?

Note this is just an impression I get, I could be completely going down a path that doesn't exist!

 

[Farnboro John]

Bit of a long shot here, but having watched loads of documentaries I was wondering if it's possible that coastal otters (I'm talking otters around the UK, not sea otters that you get elsewhere) are slightly bigger than those found more inland on rivers? I've seen them at the coast in real life but unfortunately not inland. But I just get this impression from TV shows that the coastal ones are bigger. I don't know if their populations ever interbreed or whether they're isolated from each other, but if the latter, couldn't that contribute to a potential size difference if it exists?

Note this is just an impression I get, I could be completely going down a path that doesn't exist!

In our small island I'd be very surprised if the whole population (apart from Shetland) doesn't mix sufficiently to prevent such a change. None of our rivers are very long compared to those of continents and individual Otters are known to travel across country let alone along watercourses.

John

 

[JTweedie]

Yeah I wasn't sure how much otters travel. Always thought they were quite sedentary.

Obviously changing in size would probably only happen if there was an evolutionary advantage to it.

 

[Weasel1]

From what I have read this morning, coastal Otters have a much smaller territory, where inland Otters territories can be up to 32km, so having farther to travel in the search for food, possibly making them leaner / fitter looking and less plump, just a theory though.

 

[dantheman]

I wouldn't be surprised if Northern/coastal otters were on the larger size - but to what statistical degree? I read that otter populations were fragmented by the 70s (but recovered now), don't know how long they had been fragmented. And whether coastal otters actually were a bit distinct from inland (like a cryptic subspecies??). Genetics been done?