Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Understanding The Otters of Borneo
Understanding The Otters of Borneo
otters of Borneo
TEXT BY ANNABEL PIANZIN & ANNA WONG
ADORABLE YET energetic, otters including the loss of habitat due to human
are one of the many lovable animals destruction, illegal poaching (wildlife trade
in the world, famous for their cute and and product) and pollution.
fluffy appearance. Yet, they are not a
well-known species when it comes to Under the IUCN Red List of Threatened
wildlife conservation, owing to the lack Species, the Asian small-clawed otter
of scientific research. In Sabah, few is listed as Vulnerable; the hairy-nosed,
studies on this carnivorous mammal Endangered; smooth-coated, Vulnerable;
have been made since the 1980s, despite and Eurasian otter, Near Threatened. Below:
Smooth-coated otters
the fact that they play an important role The hairy-nosed otter is the rarest of the (Credit: Yeap Chin Aik)
within the freshwater ecosystem. otter species and also the least known,
Opposite page
not found anywhere in the world except Top to bottom:
Out of the 13 species of otters found for Southeast Asia. Altered habitats, such
as oil palm reserve and
worldwide, four are residents of logged forest reserve
Borneo – Asian small-clawed otter Until recently, both the hairy-nosed and were found to have the
most number of otter
(Aonyx cinereus), hairy-nosed otter Eurasian otters were thought to be extinct signs owing to their
shoreline vegetation and
(Lutra sumatrana), smooth-coated otter in the state, but they have since been low canopy cover
(Lutrogale perspicillata) and Eurasian rediscovered. The hairy-nosed otter was
Signs of otters include
otter (Lutra lutra). All species are rapidly found in the Deramakot Forest Reserve in their footprints and scat
declining due to numerous pressures, 2010 (Conservation of Carnivores in Sabah (Credit: Annabel Pianzin)
22 • Malaysian Naturalist
project) and Tabin Wildlife Reserve in
2016 (Ishigami et al., 2017), while the
mysterious Eurasian otter (that lived only
as specimens in a Kuching museum) was
sighted in 2014 by a visitor to the Danum
Valley Conservation Area (Phillips & Phillips,
2016). This gives us hope that it is still
possible to take conservation action to
ensure they thrive in their environment.
24 • Malaysian Naturalist