By Stan Tekiela
For whatever reason, some wild animals are near and dear to people’s hearts. They have a universal appeal, resulting in admiration across the masses of people. For example, many are obsessed with owls. Any kind of owl. Big ones, small ones, it really doesn’t matter.
The same can be said for other wild critters, such as otters. For whatever reason, everyone seems to love otters. This was on full display last week while I was leading a photographic tour of Bald Eagles and Sea Otters in Alaska. For 5 days my small group of photographers spent 6 hours a day photographing Bald Eagles and Sea Otters.
There are 13 species of otter in the world ranging in size from the Small-clawed Otter, which is less than 3 feet long, to the Giant Otter which stretches six feet long. All otters are semiaquatic or marine mammals in the weasel family. They can be found on every continent except for Antarctica and Australia.