Although the feeding behavior of the sea· otter, Enhydra lutris, is frequently observed from the surface, few underwater observations of foraging sea otters have been published. Faro (1969) and Houk and Geibel (1974) described the underwater behavior and tool use of sea otters when they removed abalone from rock substrates. Shimek (1977) observed a sea otter foraging for snails and presumably o...

MScott (Multi-SCOTT) is a general purpose rst order theorem prover based on McCune's Otter and having the same functionality as Otter. Like its predecessor Scott, it uses a model generator to nd small models of subsets of the clauses generated during proof search. MScott diiers from Scott in that it generates and uses several models simultaneously. This not only improves its coverage of the use...

We investigated the phylogeography of the smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) to determine its spatial genetic structure for aiding an adaptive conservation management of the species. Fifty-eight modern and 11 archival (dated 1882-1970) otters sampled from Iraq to Malaysian Borneo were genotyped (mtDNA Cytochrome-b, 10 microsatellite DNA loci). Moreover, 16 Aonyx cinereus (Asian small...

The large, bunodont postcanine teeth in living sea otters (Enhydra lutris) have been likened to those of certain fossil hominins, particularly the 'robust' australopiths (genus Paranthropus). We examine this evolutionary convergence by conducting fracture experiments on extracted molar teeth of sea otters and modern humans (Homo sapiens) to determine how load-bearing capacity relates to tooth m...

Canine monocytic ehrlichiosis and rickettsiosis are zoonotic tick-borne diseases of canids caused by the intracellular obligate bacteria Ehrlichia canis and Rickettsia species respectively. In this study, we investigated using standard and real-time PCR and sequencing, the occurrence and molecular characterization of E. canis and Rickettsia species in the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) from the s...

Abstract Keystone predators can impact many prey species, including those that are endangered. A requisite to assess the have on different populations is identify species being consumed in types of communities, while accounting for possible seasonal variation consumption. Here we used analysis North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) scat otters their populations, particularly endangered ...