'Furget-me-not' say anti-fur otter campaigners

The whale, tiger, eagle and panda are the 'celebrities' among endangered animals -- but there are other less well-known, yet just as important animals who are also in danger. The International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) recently launched an anti-fur campaign called Furget-me-not to highlight the plight of the otter.

Otters are hunted in large numbers for their fur, particularly in Cambodia. The furs are mostly sold in Tibet, where it forms part of the national dress, the Chupa. These costumes are worn at important events as a status symbol, and each one use up to six furs.

The campaign will raise funds for a program in Cambodia which will train local rangers to protect the animals. Many of the hunters are poor farmers, who will be encouraged to take work in otter conservation projects, rather than hunting.

"The campaign is called 'Furget-me-not' as the otter is the forgotten animal of the fur trade. Everyone always thinks about tigers and leopards or elephant ivory but the trade in otter furs is huge," says Dr Paul Yoxon of IOSF, which was formed to protect otter populations. "Recently, there was a massive haul of 778 otter skins in Tibet and we are regularly receiving reports of more and more skins found."

Some of the skins that have been found belong to the hairy-nosed otter, which is so rare that in 1998 it was thought to be extinct. Small populations have since been found, but are now being hunted.

"At this rate of hunting, the hairy nosed otter will soon be really extinct and, this time round, there will be no great discovery of remnant populations," says Yoxon.

Thankfully, though, our own otter population is doing much better. Otters were common in the UK fifty years ago, but habitat loss and water pollution all but wiped them out. Conservation efforts have worked well in recent years, and numbers are climbing again.

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