Predators I Have Known - Alan Dean Foster [81]
I might still be drifting.
XIV
TEENAGE KILLER NINJA OTTERS
Southwestern Brazil, May 2000
OVER THE YEARS, I’VE BEEN fortunate enough to have observed and had encounters in the wild with hundreds of different animals. Big animals, small animals, animals considered conventionally beautiful, and animals regarded as unattractive. Creatures of the air, sea, and land. Some too small to see without the aid of a magnifying glass and others too big to avoid. Animals so inoffensive they would not harm you no matter how loutishly you intruded on their space, and animals of fallaciously benevolent mien that would chew your toes off entirely unprovoked.
From among this raging, mewling, bellowing, snorting, stridulating menagerie, I am often asked, “Which is your favorite?”
Well, if I had to choose one . . .
It is a predator, though at first glance you might not think of it as such. If you have never been fortunate enough to come across an otter in person, you’ve certainly seen them on television. Otters have served as the stars of innumerable nature documentaries. Among all the denizens of the animal kingdom, few possess such natural magnetism or seem to have as much actual fun as the otter; rocketing effortlessly through the water, tobogganing headfirst down snowbanks, playing frenetic king-of-the-mountain atop slick rocks or convenient logs. Through no design of their own, otters fit comfortably into that non-Linnaean but very real and entirely human-created genus known as Cute. Not only are they naturally playful, they are furry, inoffensively small, bewhiskered, family-oriented, and they squeak charmingly. Note that the actual differences from rats, about which most people feel quite differently, are comparatively minor.
As I have already pointed out, we are an incorrigibly visual species.
There is one kind of otter, however, that while possessing in full all of the aforementioned Lutrinaean characteristics can be something less than playful and react in a manner other than cute. It is my favorite predator as well as my favorite animal in the world.
Pteronura brasiliensis, the giant otter of South America, can grow to more than six feet in length and attain a weight of nearly eighty pounds. Cross your prototypical cuddly river otter with a seal and you’ll get some idea of what this master of the Amazon basin looks like out of the water. The giant otter is the largest member of the weasel family. In Spanish, it is known as el lobo de río or “the river wolf.” An apt name for a predator that eats piranhas for breakfast, along with pretty much anything else it can catch. Every bit as agile in the water as its smaller cousins, it is able to consume much larger prey.
Excluding humans, the giant otter’s only real enemy is the caiman, particularly the black caiman. From its massive snout to its spiky dragon’s tail, this striking South American crocodilian can reach lengths of twenty feet. Individually, a giant otter is easy prey for the caiman. But a cooperative family group of otters cannot only drive off the armored giants, they have been known to kill smaller ones.
They have also been reputed, on rare occasions, to seriously injure humans who intrude on their territory.
Nearly wiped out by decades of uncontrolled hunting for their pelts, giant otters are now protected in many parts of the continent. Where their habitat has been left intact, they are making a slow but steady comeback from near extinction. Endangered but viable populations are reported from Guyana, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Despite their wide range they remain scarce and often difficult to see. Though I missed them in Guyana, I have been fortunate enough to encounter them while crossing the small lakes they favor