Otter Characteristics: Small • Fun-loving • Communicative • Unassuming • Appealing • Finicky
Scientific Name: Amblonyx cinerea
Collective Term: A prank of otters 

The Irresistible Otter

Otters are petite, engaging creatures overflowing with positive energy. Intelligent and bright, they are also popular, eminently lovable and display the highly developed social skills that typify small carnivores. Otters mix easily with a wide range of animal personalities.

Otters certainly aren't Beavers!

Lazy? Let's just say easily distracted. Life has so many diversions for the otter that it's impossible to predict how it will fill its day. But when an otter gets focused on a problem, its keen intelligence rises to the challenge and it won’t give up until the last nut is cracked.

Otters feel entitled to the good things in life and a general sense of wellbeing gives them the confidence to not have to worry about the future. A lover who wants to impress an otter should know that otters love to eat out and have a predictable penchant for sushi.

Although intelligent and witty, otters have a tendency to suffer from self-doubt, and fear of failure can prevent them from living up to their true potential. Still, they are a great problem solvers, with the ability to spend endless hours on abstract or practical challenges. As workers, they are dedicated and capable and always eager for a chance to prove themselves.

Otters in the Workplace

Their determination makes otters valuable employees, and although they often feel that their contributions are undervalued they would rather accept lower pay than risk confrontations in their workplace.

Although they are fine motivators, otters avoid taking leadership roles and perform better in group situations where their social skills come in handy counseling coworkers through their problems. Their dexterous hands are useful in a wide range of careers, and they're ideally suited for work in engineering, advertising, and design.

Otters in the Wild

This engaging creature is a master swimmer. Using its tail and hind quarters as a rudder, the otter is able to maneuver as quickly as the fastest fish and is equally at home on land.

Otters are nomadic animals, covering up to fifteen miles a day in an effort to find a good fishing hole. Moving rapidly over land by tobogganing over muddy patches, they travel mainly at night to avoid predators.

Because of its characteristic mode of swimming, which reveals a little furry hump, mothers with families in tow are sometimes mistaken for sea serpents, giving rise to a number of legends. In fact, President Theodore Roosevelt saw a "monster" on Lake Naivasha in Kenya and fired at the three humps of the swimming beast. Two humps promptly disappeared, but the third was killed and sent to a New York museum.

Careers & Hobbies

Engineering • Pro Sport • Medical • Design • Computers • Mathematics
Surfing the Web • Swimming • Cuddling • Reading

Love & Friendship

As lovers, otters are tenacious and have remarkably vital libidos. Unafraid of expressing their needs, they do not tolerate selfish lovers and are attracted those creative enough to fulfil their sexual appetites. Among the aquatic animals, the lusty dolphin provides endless fun while the terrestrial fox proves to be a challenging and sexy companion.

In a relationship, an otter will willingly stray into dangerous waters, betting that its instincts will see it though. But -- for the most part -- it prefers the familiar shallows of a predictable association with the semi-aquatic beaver or sea lion.

Physical beauty alone is not enough to impress an otter. Its mate must be able to commune with it on a deeply emotional level as well. Few animal personalities can live up to its high standards, but otters seem to find happiness with semi-aquatic creatures, which include sea lions, beavers, and walruses. Even the lethargic hippo provides some amusement for this effervescent little carnivore, but don't expect these two to ever tie the knot.

Famous Otter Personalities

Leonardo DiCaprio

Ironically Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't win an Oscar until he dropped his drop-dead-cute otter persona, grew a beard and snotted on it in The Revenant.

Meg Ryan

For a while, actress Meg Ryan was known as "America's Sweetheart", and only an otter could reach that level of cuteness.

Jennifer Aniston

A quintessential otter, Jennifer Aniston shot to fame as the impossibly cute Rachel on Friends -- her hair-style starting a trend that took years to die off.