{"id":18094,"date":"2026-07-30T11:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=18094"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:14:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:44:04","slug":"smooth-coated-otter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/smooth-coated-otter\/","title":{"rendered":"Smooth Coated Otter"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Smooth Coated Otter Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recent study has identified evidence of a significant smooth coated otter population in Mettur dam and Cauvery River stretches of Salem district which prompted researchers to call for the area to be declared a protected freshwater habitat.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Smooth Coated Otter<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a species of otter, the only extant <\/span><b>representative of the genus Lutrogale.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Appearance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It has rounder head, prominent naked noses, and flattened tails, <\/span><b>webbed feet<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and strong dexterous paws that are armed with sharp claws.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They live in southern and <\/span><b>Southeast Asia, China, and India, and in Iraq<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> there is a small population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Habitat: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is mostly found in <\/span><b>lowlands, coastal <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/mangroves\/\" target=\"_blank\">mangrove<\/a> forests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, peat swamp forests, freshwater wetlands, large forested rivers, <\/span><b>lakes, and rice paddies.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This species is <\/span><b>equally comfortable on land<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and can travel long distances overland in search of suitable habitat.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Features of Smooth-coated Otters<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are the <\/span><b>largest otter in Southeast Asia.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fur of this species is smoother and shorter than that of other otters.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fur is light to dark brown dorsally and light brown to almost gray ventrally.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have short, tightly packed under fur and longer, <\/span><b>water-repellant guard hairs.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>strong swimmers and hunt in groups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. When fishing, they travel in a V-formation going upstream.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Threats:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Loss of habitat, habitat degradation due to water pollution from fertilizers and pesticides and poaching.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Conservation Status<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>IUCN:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Vulnerable<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/tamil-nadu\/mayiladuthurai-college-study-identifies-major-otter-habitat-in-mettur-region\/article71262337.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smooth Coated Otter is a species of otter, the only extant representative of the genus Lutrogale. Read more about Smooth-Coated Otter, Habitat, Features, IUCN Status, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":59160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2155],"class_list":["post-18094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-smooth-coated-otter","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18094"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116052,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18094\/revisions\/116052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}