In May, international representatives will vote on whether to give short-clawed and smooth-coated otters the highest level of protection at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites). According to the Traffic study, the vast majority of Facebook ads were from Indonesia, followed by Thailand. Krishnasamy and others are pushing for better enforcement of existing regulations and stronger laws to protect otters from the pet trade. Photo credit: World Animal Protection/ Many cafes and pet shops sell otters to anyone interested in taking one home. Spotting us, the animals burst into chirps, whimpers, shrieks and screams. Pets in Japan are not only for companionship. Otters are best observed at arm’s length and in the wild. “We can’t keep up with the amount of unwanted pets,” he wrote in an email. “It’s just been increasing,” she said. Otters and most exotic pets may not like to be restrained, especially with strangers. Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, a nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates wildlife, says it can’t keep up with the surge in unwanted pets. Some pets in Japan even have the luxury of their own pet closets filled with expensive couture clothing from Chanel to Gucci designed specifically for pets. Otters are difficult to breed in captivity without proper techniques. Otter and wild animal cafés – coffee shops that have otters on display and in some cases available for holding or petting by customers – are also part of this problem. Unfortunately, this fad has lead to the illegal smuggling of otters into Japan. There is a dramatic and troubling surge in wild animals being kept as pets. “Singaporeans are beginning to look at the water again.”. The four otter species aren’t on the brink of extinction, but they’re not exactly thriving. Speaking at his Tokyo cafe location, where walls are lined with autographed photos of Japanese YouTube and television celebrities, Mr. Nagayasu said that his otters come from a breeding facility he founded in Malang, Indonesia, which he claimed received otters rescued from the illegal trade and bred them. A staff member holds an otter at the cafe. People in Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and elsewhere can pay thousands of dollars to own one. Given a chance, otters and people still can coexist, even in crowded Southeast Asia, said Sivasothi N, a biologist at the National University of Singapore. “But the supply isn’t catching up.”. Asian otters at risk from illegal trade to meet booming demand in Japan. Where are all of these pets coming from? These countries supplies otters to international markets where they can be legally bred as pets. “This place looks very suspicious, like nothing more than a holding facility for animals for sale,” Mr. Palmer said. People will pay thousands of dollars to own one of these creatures. Now international trade in the species may be banned. She’s a small-clawed otter, an Asian species that in the wild hunts for fish and crustaceans and frolics in streams and mangroves. “We have this cuteness culture that is really deeply rooted in Japan, and that plays a strong role in this trend.”. Otters often feed on live crayfish and a low pH cat food when in captivity. In Vietnam, Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates animals confiscated from traffickers, has begun receiving otters for the first time in the group’s 14-year history. “There’s no way we can completely get rid of pet trade,” Mr. Willcox said. Penthai Siriwat, a doctoral candidate at Oxford Brookes University, monitored seven Thai-language Facebook pages from 2017 to early 2019, and found 572 individual animals for sale. Many people have seen the film Ring of Bright Water or read author Gavin Maxwell’s 1960 book of the same title. Trending: Otters as exotic pets in Southeast Asia Contents 3 About the cover: An otter in captivity at a cafe in Tokyo, Japan. But on the ground at Kebun Alam Jaya, Mr. Nagayasu’s facility in Indonesia, there is little evidence of conservation, according to the Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group, a nonprofit organization based in Medan, Indonesia, and the International Otter Survival Fund. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- The internet has largely driven the exponential increase in their popularity and trade as pets, said Nicole Duplaix, a conservation biologist at Oregon State University and co-chairwoman of the otter committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. She likens their sharp bite to that of a sewing machine piercing fabric. People who like to physically interact with their pets will be disappointed. Indonesian government officials did not respond to requests for comment. The pet trade is exposing them along with other exotic animals. In Thailand, trapping, selling or exporting otters is illegal, but the animals are freely traded online there, too. Japan’s continued obsession with otters has left wildlife experts concerned about the future of the species. Otter cafes (like cat cafes) are also on the rise in Tokyo. To stay healthy in captivity otters need specialized food. Otters have become oddly popular as pets in recent years and social media is flooded with their cute and alluring photographs. And, according to the Traffic report, Indonesia hasn’t explicitly outlawed the sale of wild otters. Small-clawed otters and to a lesser extent the three other otter species found in Southeast Asia—the Eurasian otter, the smooth-coated otter, and the hairy-nosed otter—have become new stars of the regional pet trade. Pet otters aren't just big in Japan. In the country known for quirky animal cafes, otter cafes are gaining popularity and an increasing number of social media accounts by people owning otters … Customers play with small-clawed otters in a booth at a cafe in Tokyo. Tokyo, Japan, 19th October 2018—a boom in demand for otters as pets in japan, particularly the Small-clawed Otter, has been linked to rising numbers of “otter cafés”, high-profile television programmes featuring otters and celebrities, and the popularity of otter pet “superstars” on social media platforms. The Eurasian otter has been listed on Appendix I since 1977. “The problem with otters is that just normal people, even my friends, are now interested in keeping them as pets,” said Yui Naruse, a researcher at Traffic Japan. Here, a vet with the foundation feeds a rescued baby otter. Otters' growing popularity as a pet in Japan could be one of the reasons behind the poaching and illegal trade of the animal, Traffic said. Most sellers offered young small-clawed otters, smaller (at less than 10 pounds) than their longer-clawed counterparts. They also are increasingly common in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. “Most pet otters are treated like toys—we see them on pet leads, wearing dolls’ clothing, and fed very bad human diets,” Taylor says. Nearly half the retailers claimed that their animals were captive-bred in Japan. Photographs taken by Mr. Gea show adult otters in tiny wire cages and cement pits lacking adequate nest boxes in which to have cubs. Other otters (sea otter, river otter) aren't as popular. Duplaix and others also want to spread the word that otters shouldn’t be kept as pets. Last year, a woman was detained at Thailand’s Don Mueang International Airport, in Bangkok, for attempting to smuggle 10 baby otters to Japan, which is experiencing a boom in pet otters. 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Therapy dogs play a huge role in helping the disabled, comforting hospital patients, and as … When you see cute baby otters interacting with their keepers — such as those in the videos here — remember that these are often socialized babies that have not yet undergone maturation. One U.S.-based seller, James Lilly, wrote in a text message that he breeds otter species found in Southeast Asia and that they make good pets. That May Be Their Undoing. Absolutely not. They ingest dangerous pesticides and have been losing habitat to development. In a widely publicized case last October, a Tokyo district court prosecuted two men for smuggling five baby otters into Tokyo from Thailand. Such illegal trafficking is detrimental to wild populations of animals worldwide. 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