They do everything together and help each other to hunt food. The babies are born blind and don’t start swimming until they are about 12 weeks old. The Giant Otter features a very long body, similar to that of a weasel. Here’s why. Check this one out: Giant otter with fish. Each otter has a unique speckled brown and cream throat patch which renders easy visual identification of individuals. They are also downright scary-looking. An average giant otter will weigh between 22 and 32kg (49-71lbs). Giant otters … Male giant otters can attain a length of 1.5-1.7m (4.9-5.6ft). They dwell in flooded forests, slow moving rivers, streams, lakes and swamps. Otters range in size from 3 kg (6.6 pounds) in the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus, formerly Amblonyx cinereus) to 26 kg (57 pounds) in the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) and 45 kg (99 pounds) in the sea otter (Enhydra lutris). Giant River Otter At more than twice the length of the North American river otter, the giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is quite a sight.A skilled hunter and apex predator, the giant river otter is also very much a family-oriented creature, living in large and often noisy groups along the river banks of the Amazon and its tributaries. monspesulanus was a leopard-size (about 65 kg) relative of … Giant Otter research is usually done in the dry season and the overall understanding of Giant Otter's use of accommodation remains partial. Between 1950 – 1970, 20,000 otter pelts were exported from Peru alone. The dry season range size analysis for the three Giant Otter groups in Ecuador found areas between 0.45 and 2.79 square kilometers. Main Characteristics Giant Otters are the largest mustelid and they are similar to a very large river otter. Distribution. Throughout South America is where you will find the Giant Otter. Two of them were gigantic: Sivaonyx hendeyi was an otter the size of a wolf (around 40 kg) and Plesiogulo aff. Their long tail may add as much as 70cm (28in) to this body length. They build large dens in riverbanks and give birth to 1-5 babies at a time. Many people find this particular Otter to be different in size and shape from others. Logging and farming destroy giant otter breeding sites, and mining poisons the rivers where they live with mercury. Females are smaller at 1-1.5m (3.3-4.9ft). For that reason they are often mistaken for another type of animal. The giant otter is the longest of the otter species but shares a similar weight with the sea otter. In the wild the lifespan of a giant otter is approximately 9 years; in captivity ages of up to 22 years have been recorded but this is exceptional. In South America, the giant otter resides among hundreds of hungry caimans (a type of crocodilian related to alligators) without any issue. 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