Rare Eurasian otter spotted in Sabah

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A camera trap photo showing a Eurasian otter at a riverbank at the Tangkulap Forest Reserve in Sabah.

PHOTO: PANTHERA MALAYSIA/FACEBOOK

PETALING JAYA – The rare and elusive Eurasian otter has been sighted again – 11 years after its last confirmed appearance in Sabah.

Once thought to have been possibly eradicated from Malaysia, the Eurasian otter at the Tangkulap Forest Reserve in Sabah was captured on camera trap photos by Panthera, a conservation group studying wild cats.

Mr Tee Thye Lim, project coordinator for Panthera Malaysia, said the last confirmed sighting of the animal in Malaysia was in 2014, near the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah.

In contrast to Tangkulap Forest Reserve, which was previously a logged forest, the Danum Valley forest is relatively undisturbed.

“Historically, there has been little evidence confirming the presence of the Eurasian otter in Malaysia,” Mr Tee said in an e-mail interview.

“This lack of records may partly be due to difficulties in distinguishing them from other otter species in the region, as well as a limited number of camera trap studies focused on wetlands.”

The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) is considered a rare species across Malaysia, he added.

With this sighting, Tangkulap is now the only known location in Malaysia where all four native otter species – the smooth coated otter, the Asian small-clawed otter, the hairy-nosed otter and the Eurasian otter – coexist.

The Eurasian otter has been classified as “near threatened” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species in 2020.

Panthera works in the region to conduct monitoring surveys, determine population numbers