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Giant Otter — printable fact sheet
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Giant Otter
Pteronura brasiliensis
Pteronura brasiliensis is the largest otter in the world, reaching 1.8 m nose to tail, and it is the only one that has become genuinely, noisily social. Family groups of half a dozen to twenty animals — a breeding pair and their offspring of several years — hunt, sleep, groom an…
Did you know?
- Giant otters are the most social of all otter species and often hunt cooperatively in groups to catch larger prey.
- Giant otters are diurnal, unlike almost every other large Amazonian predator, and they maintain communal latrines and cleared "campsites" on the bank where the whole group hauls out to rest and mark. In Brazil and Peru they are called the river wolf, a name earned by the group hunting rather than any relationship to canids. Their tail is flattened horizontally into a broad flexible paddle, quite unlike the round tail of a river otter, and it is the main source of propulsion. They can be aggressive to humans who approach a den with pups, and unlike most Amazonian wildlife they do not hide from boats — they come out to inspect them, screaming.
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