River Otters, by Sasha

All About River Otters

by Sasha

         River Otters have cool features.The color of a River Otter’s fur is grey, white, black, and, brown.  Their soft smooth fur is also waterproof.  Did you know a River Otter can be under water for at least eight minutes?  They can also close their ears and nostrils to keep the water out!Isn’t that cool!?  River Otters have webbed feet to help them swim well.  They can weigh up to eight to nine pounds!  They can also dive to about sixty feet!  They are also in the weasel family.

         River Otters eat fish like shellfish, crawfish,and fish heads but, they eat lots of other stuff too.  They also eat crustaceans, mollusks ,insects, birds, oysters, crabs, frogs, rodents, turtles, and aquatic invertebrates.  They hunt at night and during the day.  They additionally like to put food on their bellies and crush it up.

         River Otters live in many different places.  They can live in streams, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, the marine coasts, the United States, Canada, and the Rocky Mountains.

         River Otters love to play.  They love to slide on their bellies and play lots of fun games they made up with other River Otters.  They’re usually active at night.   That means they’re nocturnal.   They are also very sneaky.

River Otters have many different predators.  One of them is people because hunters hunt for their smooth and soft fur. They want their fur for coats, boots, pants, shoes, and mittens etc.  The other predator is bobcats. Bobcats want them because they want to eat them.  River Otters are endangered because of these predators.  Hunters have been hunting them since the seventeen hundreds to the eighteen hundreds!   That’s why there aren’t  many left in certain places.

         Scientist don’t know what the  population is because there are so many!  River Otters are so cool!