ISSN 2319-4361 (Indexed in Google Scholar) Volume 6 | Issue 1 January - March 2017 Special Issue Part 2 Marine Biodiversity Mangroves Fishes, Crabs Otters, Dolphins, Whales Conservation Policy SMOOTH-COATED OTTER Status Survey of Otter Species in Mangrove Habitat of Sindhudurga District, Maharashtra Satish Pande, Anant Gokhale, Ram Mone, Rajkumar Pawar, Rahul Lonkar, Prashant Deshpande, Dr. Satish Karmalkar and Sudhanwa Rajurkar (Ela Foundation, Pune; [Email:
[email protected]]. Citation: Pande Satish, Anant Gokhale, Ram Mone, Introduction Rajkumar Pawar, Rahul Lonkar, Prashant Deshpande, Otters [Mustelidae Family] are poorly studied aquatic Dr. Satish Karmalkar and Sudhanwa Rajurkar. (2017). mammals. No comprehensive data for the populations Status Survey Of Otter Species In Mangrove Habitat Of and current status of this taxon is available for the Sindhudurga District, Maharashtra. Sindhudurga district, Maharashtra, India. The sporadic Ela Journal of Forestry and Wildlife 6(1): 329-346 sightings are rare, mostly in and around mangroves and the habitats are not easily accessible. In this scenario, the Date of Publication: present study provides scientifi c data for the conservation 31-3-2017 of this species. There are possibly six species of otter occurring in Asia out of which the Eurasian Otter (Lutra ISSN 2319-4361 lutra), Smooth-coated Otter (Lutrogale perspicillata), Copyright: © Pande Satish, Anant Gokhale, Ram Mone and Asian Small-clawed Otter (Aonyx cinerea), are 1,2,3 et. al. 2017 reported from India . Otter surveys are problematic due to diffi culty in Referee: R. Yosef direct detection of individuals in natural habitats and associated high costs of surveying rough and many times diffi cult to reach terrain.