If you are entering the Beijing Zoo from the southwest gate, then you turn to the right and the first exhibition area you encounter is the Otter Hall.
The first thing to do here, of course, is to look at the display board first, especially to see clearly that it is written on it as "Otter Ta", do not pronounce it as "Water Lazy Lan", don't laugh, and read it as "Mizuse Lai". I heard all this with my own ears.
To put it bluntly, otters are taxonomically mammals belonging to the carnivorous order Mustelaidae. In the ferret family, the 12 species of animals classified as otters are classified in 6 genera, which seems to mean that there are still many differences between them, but if you only look at the appearance, ordinary people can distinguish the body length (mammals do not count the tail) in addition to the large otters in South America that are more than 1 meter tall.
In China' distribution of otters are Asian small claw otter, Eurasian otter and river otter 3 species, living in Beijing Zoo is the Asian small claw otter, it and Eurasian otter, river otter are not the same genus, its body size is small, the body length is only about 40 cm, is the smallest otter, and the other 2 species of otters are more than 50 cm in length.
Of course, people come here mainly to admire animals, and at this point the Asian small-clawed otter will not disappoint you, its round face, curious eyes, pleading eyes, furry upper lip, dashing beard, and dexterous claws, etc., all reflect a strong sense of joy, and its playful habits make it one of the popular "cute pets" in zoos.
The main difference between otters and other ferrets is that they have webbing between their toes, camp aquatic or semi-aquatic life, the huge otter pond in the zoo provides them with an excellent living environment, which is very suitable for them to play, and the east and south sides of the pool have spacious glass, which is very convenient for tourists to appreciate their skillful water.
The Asian small-clawed otter is good at swimming and diving. Their bodies are slender and cylindrical, soft bodies and a thick, gradually pointed tail at the base reduces the resistance to movement in the water; the brown fluff on the surface of the body can make the water impermeable but will be bounced off. When they swim in, the forelimbs are close to the body, with the hind limbs and tail to hit the water to push, so that the body is undulating in waves, not only fast, but also the lifting and turning is very flexible, in the water suddenly forward and backward, suddenly left and right, tumbling freely, sometimes like to swim like a circle, the distance of diving underwater is also quite far.
Their eyes are small and their ears are relatively small, and they can close the valves of their nostrils and ear holes in water to prevent water from flowing in. When swimming on the surface of the water, they are accustomed to exposing their heads, backs and tails, and if they look at the wild from a distance, they have some "water monster" meaning. On the shore, they like to adopt a standing posture and look at the distance with the movement of looking very cute.
In the otter ponds of zoos, they also often stand against the glass and press their front paws against the glass, which allows us to carefully observe their large, thick foot pads and strange fins, especially the "small claws" that give them their name— these claws are indeed small, not protruding from the tip of the toe, nor sharp, so their toe prints are also small, and there are no claw marks in each toe print.
Although the Asian small clawed otter looks like a cute little animal, it cannot ignore its fierce side. In the wild, they can eat mollusks, crustaceans, frogs, and even water birds, but their favorite food is fish. They often hunt by ambush, and then hold the fish they catch out of the water and eat it. It is said that because they are more gluttonous, after discovering the fish, they catch them one by one and put them on the shore, arranged neatly, much like the way human sacrifices are placed, so the ancients believed that they needed to "sacrifice the heavens" before eating, leaving a strange record of "otter sacrifices to the heavens". Of course, it is difficult to see the phenomenon of "otter sacrifice" when visiting the zoo, but if you happen to catch up with the keeper to feed them, it is still a good show to watch: they will quickly grasp a fish tightly with their two front paws, first "crunch" to bite off the head, and then eat the body of the fish, and when eating, they will raise their heads from time to time to show a look of enjoyment.
Because the Asian small claw otters at the Beijing Zoo are often kept in pairs, visitors can not only enjoy the scenes of them swimming together in the water and chasing each other, but also experience their feelings of affection and love. If it's just in time for the breeding season, you might also see interesting sights of them nesting using natural materials such as branches, leaves, dirt and pebbles, as well as hand-supplied materials.
Unlike the Eurasian otters all over China (except the northeast), the Asian small claw otter is only found in some areas of south China and southwest China, and only a few zoos such as Beijing and Shanghai are raised and exhibited, of which the otter hall of the Beijing Zoo is a cage abundance demonstration project funded by the British and Australian embassies in China, especially for them to build a lot of tailor-made amusement facilities, so that they live here as comfortable as possible, but also let the visiting tourists get a good enjoyment.
The three species of otters distributed in China all belong to the national level II key protected wild animals. Asian small-clawed otters, because of their small size, are not as wildly hunted as Eurasian otters because of their low "economic value of furs", but they are not without threats in the wild. In addition to illegal hunting, what is more serious is the loss of their habitat, including the lakes, rivers and other waters in which they live are seriously polluted by toxic chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, etc. in industrial and agricultural wastewater, as well as the interference and even accidental injury of artificial river diversions and increasing numbers of ships. It is no alarmist that if people do not take more effective protective measures as soon as possible, otters will soon disappear from the world.
Visitors should also be aware of animal protection when visiting the zoo. For example, in order to make it easier for visitors to get close to animals, the glass guardrail of the otter pond is relatively low, and we must avoid uncivilized behaviors such as throwing bread chips and other food into the pool.
(The pictures in this article are all taken by the author)
Author: Li Xiangtao