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94 free Otters trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
29 free otters trivia questions with answers. Think you know everything about otters? Challenge yourself with our comprehensive 94-question trivia quiz covering otter species, behaviors, and fascinating facts. From sea otters to river otters, discover how much you really know about these intelligent and playful mammals that captivate people worldwide.
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Q 01Otters are carnivorous mammals belonging to which family, which also includes weasels, badgers, and mink?
Mustelidae
Otters are part of the subfamily Lutrinae, which itself is a branch of the larger Mustelidae family. This family encompasses a diverse group of carnivorous mammals known for their long bodies and short legs.
Q 02The sea otter is the only living member of which genus?
Enhydra
Enhydra: the sea otter, Enhydra lutris, is the only living species in the genus; the name is Greek for 'in the water', and it is the heaviest member of the weasel family at up to 45 kg.
Q 03How do sea otters crack open clams and sea urchins?
Pounding shells open on a rock held on the chest
Pounding shells open on a rock held on the chest is the trick; they keep a favourite stone in a pouch of skin under the forearm and can hammer 45 times in 15 seconds.
Q 04What is a floating group of resting sea otters called?
A raft
A raft usually holds 10 to 100 otters, but the largest ever recorded had more than 2,000; they wrap themselves in kelp so the group does not drift apart.
Q 05What is the common name for an otter's den or burrow?
A holt
A holt sometimes has an underwater entrance; an above-ground resting spot is a couch, while a sett belongs to a badger and a lodge to a beaver.
Q 06How does an otter's coat, rather than blubber, keep it warm and dry underwater?
It holds a layer of air against the skin
It holds a layer of air against the skin: dense underfur traps the air while long guard hairs keep water out, which is why otters groom for hours to stop the coat getting waterlogged.
Q 07Which otter species is known for being the smallest in the world, typically weighing less than 10 pounds?
Asian Small-Clawed Otter
The Asian small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species, with a maximum weight of 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) and a total body length of 730 to 960 mm (28.6 to 37.6 in).
Q 08Unlike most otters, the sea otter is marine: along which ocean's coasts does it live?
The North Pacific
The North Pacific: its range runs from northern Japan through the Aleutians and Alaska down to California, and fur-trade hunting had cut the population to perhaps 2,000 animals by the 1911 protection treaty.
Q 09What do North American river otters primarily consume in their diet?
Fish, crayfish, and frogs
Fish, crayfish, and frogs: fish remains turn up in more than 90 percent of river-otter scat samples in some studies, with crayfish the main fallback when fish are scarce.
Q 10Which paw feature lets the Aonyx cinerea otter forage by feel in mud and shallow water?
Incomplete webbing and very short claws
Its claws do not even extend past the pads of its toes, letting it feel out crabs and molluscs almost like hands.
Q 11Otters are naturally absent from which two continents?
Australia and Antarctica
Australia and Antarctica: otters live on every other continent, from Scottish sea lochs to the Amazon and the coasts of Alaska, in habitats from freshwater rivers to the open sea.
Q 12Roughly what share of its body weight does a sea otter eat each day?
About 25 percent
About 25 percent: with no blubber and a metabolism two to three times that of a land mammal its size, a sea otter eats roughly a quarter of its body weight every day, mostly clams, urchins and crabs.
Q 13Roughly how many hairs per square centimetre does sea otter fur pack?
Up to 150,000
Q 21Which otter carries the scientific name Lutra lutra?
Eurasian otter
The Eurasian otter is Lutra lutra, named by Linnaeus in 1758; it has the widest range of any otter, from Ireland and Portugal across Asia to Japan and into North Africa.
Q 22How many pups does a sea otter usually give birth to at a time?
One
One: sea otters almost always bear a single pup, and in the roughly two percent of births that produce twins the mother normally raises only one of them.
Q 23For about how long does a sea otter pup stay with its mother?
About six months
About six months: a sea otter pup rides on its mother's chest and is weaned at six to eight months, by which time it has learned to dive and forage for itself.
Up to 150,000 per square centimetre, nearly a million per square inch, and it has to be: sea otters have no blubber, so the fur is their only insulation.
Q 14Which two body parts can an otter seal shut to keep water out when it dives?
Ears and nostrils
Ears and nostrils close on cue, and a sea otter can then hold its breath for up to five minutes, though most dives last about one.
Q 15What is the term for the distinctive droppings otters leave in prominent spots?
Spraint
Spraint is the surveyor's term: it smells of anything from freshly mown hay to rotten fish, and British otter surveys rely on finding it on rocks and ledges beside water.
Q 16What do otters mainly use their long, stiff whiskers for?
Detecting prey movements in murky water
Detecting prey movements in murky water: an otter's whiskers, or vibrissae, pick up the tiny turbulence left by a swimming fish, which is why otters hunt well at night and in silty rivers.
Q 17How do sea otters typically rest at the surface?
Floating on their backs
Floating on their backs: a resting sea otter lies belly-up at the surface with its paws held out of the water to save heat, and it eats, grooms and nurses its pup in the same position.
Q 18Approximately how many extant species of otter are recognized worldwide?
13
13 species are recognised across seven genera, from the Asian small-clawed otter at about a metre and 3 kilograms to the giant otter at 1.7 metres and the sea otter at up to 45 kilograms.
Q 19Fishermen in southern Bangladesh breed which otter species to chase fish into their nets, a skill passed from father to son?
Smooth-coated
Smooth-coated otters work on leashes from the boats; the practice was once widespread across Asia and now survives in the district of Narail.
Q 20What made a Santa Cruz sea otter nicknamed 841 famous in summer 2023?
Stealing surfboards
Stealing surfboards: otter 841, a five-year-old female, repeatedly climbed onto surfers' boards off Santa Cruz, California, in July 2023 and chewed them, evading capture teams for weeks.
Q 24A 2020 study linked rock juggling by Asian small-clawed otters to what?
Hunger
Hunger: the Royal Society Open Science study found captive otters juggled pebbles far more just before feeding time, and the habit did not improve their skill at extracting food from puzzle objects.
Q 25The word 'otter' shares a Proto-Indo-European root with which everyday English word?
Water
Water and otter are cousins: Old English 'otor' descends from the root *wódr̥, so the animal's name essentially means 'the water one'.
Q 26Sea otters can digest and pass a meal in as little as how long?
3 hours
About 3 hours: a sea otter's metabolic rate runs two to three times that of a land mammal the same size, and a meal can pass through its gut in as little as three hours.
Q 27Seals and sea otters are the only carnivores with how many pairs of lower incisors?
Two
Two pairs: most carnivores carry three, while the sea otter's 32 teeth include flattened, rounded molars for crushing shells rather than slicing meat.
Q 28A diet heavy in sea urchins can stain a sea otter's teeth and bones which colour?
Purple
Purple: pigments from sea urchins build up over a lifetime of crunching the spiny shells, and the violet tint shows up in skeletons long after death.
Q 29What is a newborn sea otter pup unable to do until its adult coat grows?
Dive
Dive: the fluffy natal coat traps so much air that the pup bobs on the surface like a cork, and it cannot dive until adult fur replaces it at about 13 weeks.
Q 30The 2007 viral video of two sea otters holding paws was filmed at which aquarium?
Vancouver
Vancouver Aquarium: the paler otter, Nyac, had survived the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill; her paw-holding clip with Milo drew millions of YouTube views before she died in 2008.