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Congo Clawless Otter
Lutra congica
The Congo clawless otter (Lutra congica), also known as the Cameroon clawless otter, is a species in the family Mustelidae. It was formerly recognised as a subspecies (Aonyx capensis congicus) of the African clawless otter.
This clawless otter is found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Uganda, and possibly Burundi and Nigeria. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical mangrove forest, subtropical or tropical swamps, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, rivers, intermittent rivers, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, freshwater spring, inland deltas, saline lakes, intermittent saline lakes, saline marshes, intermittent saline marshes, shallow seas, subtidal aquatic beds, rocky shores, sandy shores, estuarine waters, intertidal flats, intertidal marshes, coastal saline lagoons, coastal freshwater lagoons, water storage areas, ponds, aquaculture ponds, seasonally flooded agricultural land, and canals and ditches. It is threatened by habitat loss.
From the article Congo clawless otter on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Congo clawless otters are characterized by only partial webbing (between the toes of their back feet and no webbing on their front feet), and small, blunt, peg-like claws. They have very sensitive forepaws, which they use for foraging. Other otters have fully webbed feet and strong, well-developed claws. Clawless otters have slender, serpentine bodies with dense, luxurious fur and long tails. All otters have been exploited for their thick, velvety fur. Their head and body length measure to be about 600–1,000 mm (24–39 in), and their tail length is between 400 and 710 mm (16 and 28 in). These large otters can weigh between 14 and 34 kg (31 and 75 lb).
What it does
Congo clawless otters feed on fairly soft prey items, such as small land vertebrates, frogs, and eggs.
Wikipedia: “Diet”
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Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 1638839.