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Lontra

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A playful North American River Otter at the San Francisco Zoo.

Lontra is a special group of playful animals called otters. These otters live in the Americas, near rivers, lakes, and oceans. They love to swim and dive, and sometimes slide on their bellies over snow or mud.

Otters are very clever and have thick fur that keeps them dry in water. They have webbed feet that help them swim fast and well. People enjoy watching them because they are smart and stay close to their families.

Lontra otters help nature stay balanced by eating fish and crabs. Scientists have found very old bones of these otters, showing that they have lived in North America for a very long time.

Images

A river otter swimming through a hole in the ice on the Green River at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge.
A preserved Southern River Otter on display at the Museum of Patagonia in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.
A playful river otter in its zoo habitat.
A marine otter at Huachipa Zoo in Lima, Peru.
Fossilized bones of an ancient river otter, displayed at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Map showing the geographic range of the Lontra species.
Map showing where the Southern River Otter lives in South America.
Map showing where the Neotropical Otter can be found in the wild.
Map showing where the Marine Otter lives in the wild.

Related articles

Otter
Americas

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Lontra, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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