Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Last week, Dr Coleman went through the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List which I thought I should explore to help with my findings on otters in Singapore. 

So, what is the IUCN Red List?

It is a list  referred to by many governmental agencies and non-government organisations as they provide different critical information about different species of wildlife which can aid these organisations make better-informed policies.

Due to the word limit, I will only talk about the smooth-coated otters this week. The Asian small-clawed otters and my final conclusions will be discussed in the following blog.

Smooth-coated otters

Smooth-coated otters are found mainly in South and Southeast Asia.

According to IUCN Red list (2015), smooth-coated otters are categorised under ‘vulnerable’ which is under the threatened category. They are placed in that category as they have the criteria A2cde. 

To quote the Red List Guidelines, A2 means that the smooth-coated otters have a population reduction observed, estimated, inferred or suspected of more than or equal to 30% where the cause of reduction may not have ceased or may not be understood or may not be reversible.

This is based on

• c) a decline in area of occupancy (AOO), extent of occurrence (EOO) and/or habitat quality
• d) actual or potential level of exploitations and
• e) effect of introduced taxa, hybridisation, pathogens, pollutants, competitors or parasites.

This website confirmed some threats that a smooth-coated otter population is facing such as the loss of habitat due to development of wetlands for housing. However, in addition to these threats, I learnt that the smooth-coated otters residing in other countries also have to face additional issues that the Singapore ones might not need to.  

1. Pollution – Their habitats which mainly consist of wetlands and waterways are becoming less habitable due to eutrophication and also the build-up of persistent pesticides through agricultural runoffs. Such pesticides can be harmful to the otters.
2. Human- otter conflicts – This issue affects almost all the countries where the smooth-coated otters reside in. This mostly occurs due to poverty and the increasing practise of aquaculture. The smooth-coated otters are killed randomly to protect the farms.
3. Illegal poaching- Widely occurring in South Asia, there is a significant number of otter-trapping.

As I reflect, I realised that Singapore smooth-coated otters might still face these issues if it is not for the cleaning of Singapore’s water.  The  human-otter conflict issues in Singapore also seemed less problematic when you compare them with other countries where otters have the possibility of destroying your livelihood. 

Additionally, from my point of view, Singapore mostly has solved issue 1 with our current programs that ensures  our water and water bodies are clean. However, issue 2 is still happening in Singapore which can be seen in my previous blog posts .  Furthermore, I feel that the number of human-otter conflicts will only rise as there might be a rise in aquaculture in Singapore as Singapore is preparing to be less reliant on food imports.(You can read more about Singapore’s 30 X 30 plan by my friend, Ee Kin).So the issue of human-otter conflict due to the aquaculture is starting to get more real in Singapore. What do you think about this?

For those that thought I forget about issue 3, fret not.  I will address the issue next week together with the Asian small-clawed otters.

References

de Silva, P., Khan, W.A., Kanchanasaka, B., Reza Lubis, I., Feeroz, M.M. & Al-Sheikhly, O.F. 2015. Lutrogale perspicillata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T12427A21934884. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T12427A21934884.en.

https://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/redlistguidelines