- Notebooking Safari – Russia and the Brown Bear
- Notebooking Safari – Thailand and the Asian Elephant
- Notebooking Safari – Vietnam and the Water Buffalo
- Notebooking Safari – Brunei and Proboscis Monkey
- Notebooking Safari – Malaysia and the Orangutan
- Notebooking Safari – Indonesia and Sumatran Rhinoceros
- Notebooking Safari-India and the Bengal Tiger Part One
- Notebooking Safari-India and the Bengal Tiger Part Two
- Notebooking Safari-Singapore and the Crab-Eating Macaque
- Notebooking Safari-Oman and the Arabian Oryx
- Notebooking Safari-Burma and the Saltwater Crocodile
- Notebooking Safari-United Arab Emirates and the Dromedary Camel
- Notebooking Safari-Qatar and the Dromedary Camel (Part Two)
- Notebooking Safari-Iraq and the Eurasian Lynx
- Notebooking Safari-Yemen and the Hamadryas Baboon
- Notebooking Safari-Bangladesh and the Asian Small-Clawed Otter
- Notebooking Safari-Israel and the Asian Lion
- Notebooking Safari Sri Lanka and the Giant Squirrel
- Notebooking Safari -Kazakhstan and the Snow Leopard
- Notebooking Safari-Turkey and the Chamois
- Notebooking Safari-Bahrain and the Lesser Egyptian Jerboa
- Notebooking Safari-Kyrgyzstan and the Horse
- Notebooking Safari-Tajikistan and the Markhor
- Notebooking Safari-Uzbekistan and the Saiga
- Notebooking Safari-Turkmenistan and the Red Fox
- Notebooking Safari-Iran and the Ring-Necked Pheasant
- Notebooking Safari-Afghanistan and the Pamir Argali
- Notebooking Safari-Pakistan and the Muntjac
- Notebooking Safari-India and the Wild Yak
- Notebooking Safari-China and the Bactrian Camel
- Notebooking Safari-China and the Giant Panda
Our next stop in our notebooking safari across Asia takes us to Bangladesh. If you’re new to the notebooking safari, visit our first stop here.
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I thought it was time for a cute, playful animal, and what’s more fun to watch than an otter? We’re going to meet the Asian small-clawed otter, to be exact. It’s the smallest of the thirteen species of otters; they only weigh about 6.6 pounds (3 kg). That’s less than most human babies weigh when they’re born!
They are usually lots of fun to watch. Let’s go down by the river and see what they are up to.
Yep, there they are, just like I expected. There are about a dozen of them over on the far bank of the river. Do you see the patch of brown furry creatures? Here, use my binoculars. Do you see them now?
A couple of them are swimming while the others are resting on the land. Hand me the binoculars again for a minute; I think I see something you won’t want to miss.
It’s just like I thought. Here, take the binoculars back. Now, do you see the one over on the far left? He’s getting his dinner ready. He’s dug up some shellfish and is setting them out in the sun. The heat will do the work for him, causing them to open. Then he’ll just reach in and have his meal!
And don’t miss the one over on the right. He’s using the muddy bank for a sliding board! He slides down the mud, plops into the water, and then scampers back up to the top of the muddy bank again. I think he might do this all day!
To hear some of the different calls otters use, click here.
To watch a fun video of an Asian small-clawed otter playing with a pebble in a zoo, click here.
Use this website to answer the following questions:
True or False:
1. Frogs might be on an otter’s dinnertime menu.
2. Quadruplet otters are impossible.
3. Otters spend a lot of time in the water.
Research challenge: How many different species of otters are known? The Asian small-clawed otter spends more than half of its day in the water. Does that make it the most aquatic or the least aquatic of all of the species?
For a free downloadable copy of the entire Asian animals notebooking safari series (31 units total) plus a notebooking page for each one, sign up below.