Eurasian otter

The slim, streamlined body of the otter is perfectly adapted to aquatic life. It also has webbed feet between its toes and special skin folds that close its ears and nose when diving. A dense coat with around 50,000 hairs per square centimetre of skin protects them from the wet and cold. Otters are solitary animals and females raise their young alone. Their diet is not limited to fish, but also includes crayfish, frogs, pond mussels, waterfowl and small mammals. Otters were originally found in most bodies of water. Rigorously persecuted as "fish predators" and hunted for their fur, they were wiped out almost everywhere, including in Tyrol. The Alpine Zoo was the first zoo in Europe to succeed in breeding this highly endangered "water marten" in 1978.