I came across an article about a 4 month old otter cub belonging to the extremely rare hairy-nosed breed which was found in a villager’s hut in SW Cambodia recently.

This particular type of otter was thought to be extinct in 1998 but small pockets of hairy-nosed otters have since been discovered in the coastal areas of Cambodia, as well as in some other neighbouring countries.

Apparently otters are hunted for their pelts in SE Asia and most of the skins end up going to China and Tibet. They mentioned finding a haul of 778 otter skins in Lhasa – what an incredibly huge number.

There was a link at the bottom of the article to an English website called Furget Me Not, which is an organisation dedicated to stopping this atrocious indiscriminate killing.

Just take a look at the picture on their home page and weep. The sight is enough to break anyone’s heart.

And what can we do to help stop this from happening?

If you click on the “How to Help” tab, there are a number of suggestions and not all of them involve shelling out money.  

Imagine the feeling if you know that your efforts have helped to save some of these gorgeous mustelids! Wouldn’t that be just the best thing?

So … if there is anything you can do to get people aware of the terrible plight of these poor animals, please do it. Spread the word!  God knows these otters need as much help as they can get to prevent their species from being wiped off the face of the Earth.

Other articles you might like;

Filed under: Mustelids • Otters

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!