Meet Pursat: The World's Only Rescued Hairy-Nosed Otter

Pursat in his pool at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue CenterWildlife Alliance’s Care for Rescued Wildlife program at Phnom Tamao is home to Pursat, a rescued hairy-nosed otter. Pursat is probably the only one of his species cared for by humans anywhere on Earth.

The hairy-nosed otter (Lutra sumatrana) is one of the rarest and least known of the five species of otters native to Asia. Without a strong scientific record of the species in the wild, the world remains largely ignorant of hairy-nosed otter population, behavior, and habitats. We do know that the species is in decline, and recognized as Endangered, after once being believed extinct in the wild. 

The challenge for caring for Pursat is his extreme sensitivity to stress and pollution. After Pursat was placed in a larger enclosure that previously housed another hairy-nosed otter, he became ill. Fearing for his life, wildlife handlers moved him into a separate pool in Phnom Tamao’s quarantine area, which is refilled daily with filtered water from Phnom Penh. Inside his pool, Pursat is fed only live fish in an effort to minimize the chance of any harmful toxins entering his system.

While caring for a hairy-nosed otter in captivity is a challenge, Pursat is destined for lifetime care as there is unsuitable habitat for his release back into the wild. At Phnom Tamao, he represents a once-widespread species that is threatened by pollution, dams, and habitat loss as rivers and shorelines are developed.

Range of hairy-nosed otter (data source: IUCN Red List)

The hairy-nosed otter is considered terrestrial, freshwater, and marine. It has been spotted in a variety of habitats, including swamp forests, wetlands, freshwater and coastal areas, mountain streams, and in the sea.  In the wild, hairy-nosed otters feed on fish and water snakes, but supplement their diet with frogs, lizards, turtles, crabs, mammals, and insects. Hairy-nosed otters are now reduced to small pockets of territory in Northeast India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Throughout their native range, conversion of their habitat is the gravest threat, as once-remote areas are developed as plantations for oil palm, food crops, and fish farming. All of these individual threats affect both the environment and the biodiversity of the surrounding area. Further threats include poaching for the illegal wildlife trade, meat, and medical use. The hairy-nosed otter is legally protected in all the range countries, and on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

How can you help Pursat and his friends? Help Wildlife Alliance care for Pursat by sponsoring him with a monthly donation of $45 to provide him with all the live fish he needs for one month. Able to do more? A donation of $3,500 will provide the funds to build Pursat a new enclosure with a pool and dedicated water supply that will meet his specific needs.

Learn more about hairy-nosed otters at the IUCN Otter Specialist Group, and make sure that you aren’t inadvertently contributing to the loss of hairy-nosed otther habitats!