You Otter Know the Difference

When is an otter in the sea not a sea otter? When it’s a river otter of course.

River otter skeleton	Sea otter skeleton

It’s a common mistake to confuse sea otters with their cousins the river otter because river otters live around either freshwater or the ocean. In fact, there are so many river otters around our seashores, and they are so active in the sea, that people are easily convinced the otter they see is the sea otter. But once you know what to look for, you’ll easily tell river and sea otters apart.

Can you tell which is which?

If you see an otter moving easily on land then it’s a river otter. Long legs make walking easy and they frequently move to and from their dens in the forest, or playfully slide down their otter runs into the sea. Sea otters are true ocean-dwelling marine mammals, almost never coming out of their ocean home. They are really quite clumsy on land and are perfectly capable of spending their entire lives out at sea.

Seeing an otter in the water is one of the best ways to identify it. At the surface, river otters swim belly-down and expose very little of their back, while sea otters swim belly-up and float high in the water due to their air-filled fur.