Otter Trivia for Kids
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
96 free Otter Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This otter trivia for kids quiz is written for children aged about 7 to 12 and for the parents and teachers reading it out. It covers the things kids most want to know: why sea otters float on their backs, how they crack open shellfish with a rock, why they wrap themselves in seaweed, what a baby otter is called, where the biggest and smallest otters live, and why river otters love sliding down muddy banks. There are also questions about the storybook and TV otters: Tarka, Emmet Otter and the otters of Ring of Bright Water. Every question can be answered by a curious child who likes animals, and each answer comes with a short fun fact so nobody leaves empty-handed. There is nothing frightening in here. It suits a classroom nature lesson, an aquarium trip, a rainy afternoon or a car ride. All the answers were checked against Wikipedia and wildlife references, so grown-ups can read them out with confidence. All 96 questions are free with no sign-up. Older animal fans can move on to our main Otters trivia page or the Sea Otter quiz.
30 of 96 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Otters belong to the same animal family as which of these?
Weasels and badgers
Weasels and badgers share the otter's family, the mustelids, which is why an otter has the same long, bendy body and short legs; the sea otter is the heaviest member of the whole family.
Q 02What is special about an otter's feet that helps it swim?
They are webbed
They are webbed: skin stretched between the toes turns each foot into a paddle, and the otter's long, muscular tail helps to drive it along and steer.
Q 03Kelp, which grows in underwater forests where sea otters live, is a giant kind of what?
Seaweed
Seaweed is right: kelp is a giant brown one that grows into towering underwater forests, and sea otters guard those forests by eating the sea urchins that would chew them down.
Q 04What must a river otter mother do to get her pups swimming?
Push them in
Push them in: at about two months old the pups get their first swimming lesson when mum shoves or drags them into the water, yet otters are natural swimmers and they soon get the hang of it.
Q 05An otter's home, dug under tree roots or rocks, is called what?
A holt
A holt is an otter's den, while a lodge belongs to a beaver and a sett to a badger; one otter may keep several resting places along its river and move between them.
Q 06Which pets' droppings carry Toxoplasma, a parasite that washes into the sea and kills sea otters?
Cats
Cats are the only animals that pass Toxoplasma's eggs in their droppings, so cat owners are urged to put used litter in the bin and never flush it down the toilet.
Q 07Which of these do otters seem to do just for fun?
Slide down mud into the water
Slide down mud into the water: river otters also toboggan down snowy banks, and although it doubles as a quick way to travel, many people who study them call it play.
Q 08What do river otters do when winter freezes their river?
Hunt under the ice
Hunt under the ice: river otters stay busy all winter, slipping in through cracks and holes in the ice to chase their prey and coming back up at the same gaps to breathe.
Q 09Seals and whales keep warm with a thick layer of what, which sea otters lack?
Blubber
Blubber is the fatty layer that keeps seals and whales warm; a sea otter has none, which is why its fur has to be the thickest of any animal on Earth.
Q 10What tool does a sea otter most often use to crack open shellfish?
A rock
A rock balanced on its chest works as an anvil: the otter bangs a clam against it until the shell cracks, which makes sea otters one of the very few mammals that use tools.
Q 11Where does a diving sea otter stash the food it collects?
In a pouch of skin under its arm
In a pouch of skin under its arm: loose skin forms a pocket beneath each foreleg, so the otter can tuck away one clam and carry on hunting for the next before it surfaces.
Q 12How does a resting sea otter avoid drifting out to sea?
It wraps up in kelp
It wraps up in kelp, which is anchored to the seabed and works like a mooring rope; mothers tie up their pups the same way before diving for food.
Q 13How does a sea otter eat its dinner?
Floating on its back
Q 21Which ocean do sea otters live in?
The Pacific
The Pacific is the only ocean with sea otters: they once lived in an unbroken arc from Asia round to Mexico, until fur hunters emptied most of that coast.
Q 22How long can a sea otter hold its breath at most?
About five minutes
About five minutes is the limit, but a sea otter rarely needs it: most of its hunting dives to the seabed are over in about a minute.
Q 23Which of these continents has no wild otters at all?
Australia
Australia has no wild otters, and neither does Antarctica; its rivers have the rakali instead, a native water rat sometimes nicknamed the 'Australian otter'.
Floating on its back, a sea otter uses its chest as a table, then rolls over again and again to rinse the scraps out of its fur.
Q 14Eating lots of sea urchins can turn a sea otter's teeth and bones what colour?
Purple
Purple pigment from the urchins soaks into the otter's teeth and even its bones; to eat one, it bites through the underside, where the spines are shortest, and licks out the inside.
Q 15Why must a sea otter eat about a quarter of its own weight every day?
To stay warm in cold water
To stay warm in cold water, a sea otter's body burns through food at a furious rate; a grown person with the same appetite would have to eat about 16 kilograms of food every day.
Q 16Why can't a newborn sea otter pup dive underwater?
Its fluffy fur makes it float
Its fluffy fur makes it float like a cork: the baby coat holds so much air that the pup cannot sink, and it only starts diving once sleeker grown-up fur replaces it about three months later.
Q 17What does a sea otter pup sound like when it cries for its mother?
A seagull
A seagull's screech is what the pup's cry is usually compared to; mum leaves it floating at the surface while she dives for food, and it squeals until she comes back.
Q 18A big male sea otter weighs about as much as which of these?
A 12-year-old
A 12-year-old is about right: big males reach 45 kilograms, which makes sea otters the heaviest of all otters yet still some of the smallest mammals that live in the sea.
Q 19The 1911 treaty that ended sea otter hunting was written mainly to protect which other animals?
Fur seals
Fur seals were the main worry of the four nations that signed the 1911 treaty, but its hunting ban covered sea otters too, and only just in time: fewer than a couple of thousand were left.
Q 20A famous video of two sea otters holding paws was filmed in which city's aquarium?
Vancouver
Vancouver Aquarium visitor Cynthia Holmes filmed otters Nyac and Milo drifting along paw in paw, and once the clip went online in 2007 it became YouTube's most-watched animal video of its day.
Q 24Along which great river do most giant otters live?
The Amazon
The Amazon and its side rivers hold most of the world's giant otters; hunters killed so many for their velvety fur in the 1950s and 1960s that the species vanished from much of South America.
Q 25What is a male otter called?
A dog
A male otter is called a dog, just as a male fox is; a female otter is called a sow.
Q 26North American river otters use their long whiskers for what?
Feeling for fish in dark water
Feeling for fish in dark water is the whiskers' job: the long, stiff hairs pick up the movements of prey, a big help when the river is cloudy or the light is poor.
Q 27What protects a river otter's eyes when it swims underwater?
A see-through inner eyelid
A see-through inner eyelid, the nictitating membrane, slides across each eye as the otter dives, shielding it while still letting the otter see where it is going.
Q 28Where does one tunnel of a river otter's den usually lead?
Straight into the water
Straight into the water: a river otter's den has several tunnels, and one often opens below the surface, so the otter can swim straight in and out of its home.
Q 29About how long can a North American river otter stay underwater on one breath?
Eight minutes
Eight minutes is about as long as a river otter can stay under on one breath, and its bendy body lets it make sharp, sudden turns to catch a fleeing fish.
Q 30Which country's word for otter is 'kawauso'?
Japan
Japan's word for otter is kawauso, and in old Japanese folk tales the kawauso is a trickster that changes its shape to fool people, much as foxes and tanuki do.