IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin
© IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group

Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 59 - 122 (June 2010)

Book Review
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Otter
By Daniel Allen

This new book provides in seven chapters an introduction to otters, folklore and fables, commercial otter hunting, otter hunting for sport, otters in literature and otters on screen followed by a chapter on otter protection.

Actually it is definitely not the short introduction with some editorial errors on otter species, or the protection chapter that is also short and could be discussed within the otter community, that make this book absolutely worth for reading even for the experienced scientist. Once I started to read the chapter on folklore with lots of interesting information on the otter in the myths of various areas, or the historical record on otter hunting both for fur trade and for sport as it was done mainly in England, I could not stop. I simply had to go on. The chapters on otters in fiction books and on screen show how good books, stories or films have contributed to a change in attitude towards otters at least in the general population.

For me the approximately 100 pages from chapter 2 “Folklore” to chapter 6 “The otter on screen”, are one of the most interesting information I have read on otters in years.

More information:
Reaktion Books LTD. www.reaktionsbooks.co.uk
ISBN: 978 1 86189 767 1
103 illustrations, 50 in colour
RRP UK £9.99; US $19.95

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