Saving Bangladesh’s otters: A mission not too late to launch
Three different globally threatened otter species call Bangladesh home. Their presence in this populous land can be a subject of wonder but instead otters are far beyond our conservation interest, disappearing in silence and neglect
What does the word "otter" mean to us?
I thought to myself as I was watching some rare footage of otter families. Yes, we may immediately recall the Bangla words for otters, adore them as "vodor" or "udbiral''.
Down the memory lane, the childhood poem - "Ore bhodor fire cha, khokar nachon dekhe ja" (Oh, otter! Look back and see our boy dancing) might remind us of the supposed-to-be harmonious relation between man and otter.
Perhaps they are much more than that.
The social bond among otters can be a good lesson for human society. Their intelligence, tool-using abilities, and lifestyle can help us learn life-hacks.
Cooing otter pups can be a symbol of pure innocence.
While watching the videos with my eyes glued to the screen, I kept replaying video clips of otters over and over again. I tried to decrypt the hidden messages being relayed by the word "otter". It led me to think - how well do we know our otters?
Otters, spread across five continents, are all at risk
There are 13 species of otters and all but one is threatened with extinction. The only otter species that is somewhat safe is the North American river otter. Of the 13 species, there are six in the Americas, four in Asia, and three in Africa.
Otters can be found in Asia; from the Korean peninsula and Japan to the islands of Indonesia, from Turkey and the Middle East to the Himalayan foothills and Siberia. They are present in Europe. They live in tropical Africa and South America. The Pacific seaboards also have sea-living otters.
The Eurasian otter is the only otter in Europe, present in two continents. Giant river otter of the Amazon is the largest of all; can be well more than five feet if measured from head to tail. The smallest ones hardly cross the size of a house cat. The Asian small-clawed and sea otter of the South Pacific fall in this category.
Peeking into the lives of otters
Otters are semi-aquatic. Water is a mandate for their survival. They are generally related to rivers, streams, and estuaries. But, two species of otters live in complete marine habitat.
They are carnivores. Fish is said to be the prime diet for otters. They are also known for having other types of meat, small lizards, birds, crustaceans, etc.
The smaller species mostly sustain on crabs, snails, and shrimps.
Otters are largely social creatures; maintain life-long pairs. There are few species which tend to live solitarily, such as the Eurasian and marine otter.
They are well-known for their intelligence. Other than humans, they are one of the very few mammals that can show some extent of dexterity, the use of palm and finger.
Otters are also known for using tools; sea otters can break seashells by crushing them on pebble - a technique humans perform with hammer and anvil.
Bangladesh's otters on its last legs
We have three species of otters; the Asian small-clawed, the Eurasian, and smooth-coated otter. The latter two are relatively larger and considered "critically endangered" since an assessment carried out by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Bangladesh in 2015.
The threat category - critically endangered - gives us a grim array of facts. In the simplest form, any species classified under this definition likely has less than 250 mature individuals or lost 90% of the total population within a decade or lives in an area less than 10 square kilometres.
The Asian small-clawed otter is vulnerable in Bangladesh; the species has lost 50% of its original population in the country.
Being a riverine country, otters are the symbols of healthy rivers however, they are long gone from almost all our aquatic habitats. The health of our aquatic ecosystems is fading away.
Currently, the safest refuge of otters is in the Sundarbans and the coastal mangroves. Two species, the small-clawed and the smooth-coated otter, are believed to be present there.
Insufficient amount of information
Despite the critical status of Bangladesh's otters, we literally know nothing about them. The research done on otter ecology is extremely scanty; can be counted on fingers.
According to research published by the IUCN Otter Specialist Group journal, there are 53 individuals within a 350 sq km stretch of the Sundarbans. More surprisingly, the presence of smooth-coated otters in the Ganges was scientifically established last year.
The work featured in the journal of International Otter Survival Fund tells us that about 50 individuals are still living in a 90 square kilometre riverine area of Rajshahi. This is the sole science-based work done on this species in Bangladesh.
We have a couple of studies on the life of captive smooth coated otters used in traditional fishing practices. However, the presence of otters in the forests of Sylhet and Chattogram is completely shrouded in mystery. For about 20 years, we have had no data on the Eurasian otter.
The footage I mentioned earlier can give us another startling example of how little we know of Bangladesh otters. The otters on the clips are the Asian small-clawed ones; a species never reported from Sylhet region!
This remarkable discovery came this year as a result of systematic camera-trapping surveys being done by my team under Northeast Bangladesh Carnivore Conservation Initiative with the support of Conservation Leadership Programme.
Threats are piling up
We may have uncertain knowledge on the status of otters, however, we are aware of the threats that are in full strength, crushing otter populations in Bangladesh and world alike.
Poaching for fur and extraction to supply a recently spiked demand in pet trade is the number one threat to Asia's most trafficked otter species, the Asian small-clawed otter.
Habitat destruction, conflict with fishers, drying up streams, decreasing food supply, and attacks by feral dogs are also affecting otters' already sharply plummeting population.
Efforts for otters, research-based or to conserve, are far from enough in the country. This fascinating group of carnivores is not yet a conservation priority.
A bittersweet memory
Watching camera-trap footage of not one, not two, but multiple otter families is an unforgettable experience. Hearing the cooing of otter pups on screen was heart-melting and one of those now-I-can-die-in-peace moments.
All these images were from northeast Bangladesh, a region that has long been deprioritised in conservation without any prior systematic study.
However, the joy comes with a warning.
In all existing anecdotes, northeastern forests are described as the home of the larger Eurasian and smooth-coated otters.
It is true that they showed up in those regions but to my extreme surprise, it was a species that had always been attributed to the Sundarbans; forest hundreds of miles away from the study site.
Although finding the Asian small-clawed otter here has sparked hope for the region, the apparent absence of the other two expected species has left me with an uneasy feeling: do the larger otters really roam these forests? Or is the Eurasian otter, the rarest of the three, to become the next extinct carnivore in Bangladesh?
In the classic poem mentioned above, the poet requested the otter to turn back. He did not portray its stare, but Henry Williamson did that in his classic teen fiction, written from the perspective of an otter.
I wholeheartedly wish that it would not be like the imperilled gaze of Tarka the Otter, chased by trappers, and finally cornered by the hunting dogs. On this day for otters, I pray for a thriving man-otter affair.
