Title
The Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra an Afghanistan: A Review of the Sparse Available Information
Author(s)
Ostrowski, Stéphane
Published
2016
Publisher
IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin
Abstract
The status of the Eurasian Otter in Afghanistan is particularly poorly documented, reflecting in part the effects of the country’s turbulent history of recent decades on mammal survey. In the 1970’s the species was reported in all major rivers and streambeds in Afghanistan between 400 and 2,900 m asl. Because of the poor security conditions that render most of the species’s historical habitat inaccessible, surveys carried out by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) could only confirm since 2007 its presence in the Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, in the northeastern corner of the country. Surveys of Kabul fur market carried out by WCS in 2006 confirmed the continued trading of the species and a decline in market supply compared to survey results from the 1960’s, possibly as a result of a decrease in population size. Since 2010, the Eurasian Otter is on the list of protected wildlife species in Afghanistan. Clarification of the species’s current natural distribution, population trend and threats is necessary before appropriate conservation measures, if needed, can be proposed.
Keywords
otters;Afghanistan;survey;fur trade
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