The Otter (_fig. 65._) is a voracious animal, but more fond of fish
than flesh, and is seldom found but at the sides of lakes and rivers.
He swims with more facility than the beaver, who has membranes on his
hind feet only, and whose toes on the fore feet are separate, whereas
the otter has membranes on all his feet; and he can scarcely walk
faster than he swims. He never ventures to the sea like the beaver,
but swims up and down the rivers to considerable distances. Although
he can remain a long time under water be cannot be properly called an
amphibious animal; viz. one equally capable of living in air or in
water; his conformation is not calculated for his living in the latter
element, and he requires to breathe as much as any terrestrial animal.
If they happen to be entangled in a net while pursuing a fish they
drown, and this evidently for want of time to destroy a sufficient
quantity of the meshes to effect their escape. His teeth are like those
of the polecat, though larger and stronger in proportion to its size.
For want of fish, frogs, water-rats, or other food, he will eat the
young branches and bark of aquatic trees; and in the spring he will
eat the young grass. He is as little afraid of cold as moisture. It
couples in winter and brings forth in March, and commonly three or four
at a time. In general young animals are pretty; but the young otters
are not so handsome as the old: from the awkwardness of its motions
deformity of figure, and a kind of mechanical cry, which it repeats
almost without intermission, one should suspect it a stupid animal.
He, however, becomes industrious with age, at least sufficiently so to
wage a successful war with the fishes, who with respect to instinct
and sentiment, are greatly inferior to other animals; and yet I can
scarcely believe he has, I will not say the talents, but the habitudes
of the beaver, such as always going up against the stream, in order to
return more easily down the current when loaded with his prey; that of
fitting up his house, and lining it with boards to exclude the water;
that of laying in a quantity of fish against a future scarcity; and
lastly, that of his being rendered so tame and subservient as to fish
for his master, and even taking his booty into the very kitchen. All I
know is, that the otter does not dig his own habitation, that he fixes
his residence in the first hole he finds, under the roots of poplars or
willows, in the clefts of rocks, and even among piles of floating wood;
and in those they bring forth their young; where we also find heads
and bones of fishes; that they frequently change their residence; that
they drive away their young at the end of six weeks or two months; that
those I attempted to tame endeavoured to bite, though then feeding on
milk, and unable to chew fish; that a few days after they became more
mild, probably from having become sick and weak; that so far from being
easily habituated to a domestic life, all those that I endeavoured to
rear died very young; that, in fine, the otter is of a savage and cruel
disposition; that when he gets into a fish-pond he does the same as a
polecat in a hen-house, that is kill more than he can eat, and then
carry them away in his mouth.
Though the otter is not known to shed his hair, yet his winter coat is
browner than in summer, sells for more money, and makes a very good
fur. Some people eat their flesh, which has a disagreeable fishy taste;
their retreats are always infected with the stench of fish, which they
have suffered to rot around them. Dogs have no aversion to chace the
otter whom they easily overtake when at a distance from his hole or
the water; when seized he defends himself obstinately, bites cruelly,
and sometimes with such force as to snap their leg bones, and he never
quits his hold as long as he retains his breath. The beaver, however,
though not remarkable for strength, drives the otters away, and will
not suffer them to dwell near his residence.
Though this species is not very numerous, they are to be met with in
Europe from Sweden to Naples, and also in North America. They were well
known to the Greeks, and are probably to be found in all temperate
climates, especially in those places which abound with water; for he
can inhabit neither burning sands, nor dry desarts; and he equally
avoids rivers which are sparingly inhabited, or too much frequented. I
do not believe that they exist in hot countries; for the jiya, which is
found at Cayenne, and called the Brasilian otter, though approximate,
is of a different species. The North-American otter resembles the
European in every respect, except that his fur is more black and
beautiful than those found in Sweden or Muscovy.