South African Otters Ecology

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ECOLOLOGY OF SOUTH AFRICAN OTTERS, THE AONYX CAPENSIS AND HYDRICTIS MACULICOLLIS
According to Rowe-Rowe, (1978) South African otters the Cape clawless otter or African clawless otter (Aonyx capensis) and spotted-necked otter (Hydrictis maculicollis) travel manly in aquatic habitat to another, neither of the otters is adapted at terrestrial, they try to keep land travel to a minimum. Otters dry and groom themselves by rolling and rubbing against inanimate object. Shelter is taken in holes in the ground and beneath rocks, roots of trees, or in clustered vegetation on islands (Arden-Clarke, 1986). The uncontrolled exploitation in the marine for fur trade declined the species close to extinction by the early …show more content…

When offered various fish species they caught them in inverse proportion to the fishes swimming ability, as do other otter species. Small fish were captured more readily than large fish. In freshwater areas, spotted-necked otters took almost equal amount of fish and crabs, overall crabs, however were the major item in spring, summer, and autumn with fish assuming importance in winter since crabs are inactive and remain deeply hidden during winter while fish move more slowly in the cold weather. This indicate a much higher proportion of fish in the diet, the fish fauna of Natal is impoverished, so that local spotted-necked otter must have adapted to an increased diet of crabs. Frogs made up most of the remainder of the diet. Crabs are much more important to A.capensis which took relatively few fish in Natal. Frogs are also important because they were taken in greater numbers in winter when crabs became inactive. The crabs taken by H.maculicollis were generally small , whereas A.capensis took all sizes (Tomlinson, 1974). Rowe-Rowe, (1977c) concluded that the food overlap between Aonyx and Hydrictis was …show more content…

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