FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 83 
and small mammals or any fresh meats are eagerly eaten. Otters will 
soon clear a pond or stream of muskrats, especially in winter when 
under the ice they readily enter the houses and bank burrows. In 
confinement they are usually fed on fish and fresh meat, about two 
pounds each per day as an ordinary allowance. This is usually thrown 
into the water and the animals seem to enjoy fishing it out. 
‘“‘To raise otters at a profit, a locality should be selected where 
an abundant supply of fish can be procured at small cost. 
“Otters are polygamous and during the early spring months, 
Breeding the males travel widely in search of mates, apparently re- 
Habits ae : : . 
maining with each female no longer than the nuptial period 
requires. They are soon off in search of new mates and circumstantial 
evidence indicates that a male is successively paired with as many 
females as he can find in condition to accept his attentions during the 
season. The female finds or makes her den alone in burrows or hollow 
banks, and raises, guards and feeds her family until the young are large 
enough to hunt and fight for themselves. They follow her until nearly 
full grown, but by the time the first snow and ice have come, they have 
usually scattered and each is living a mainly solitary life. However 
often their paths may cross or friendly visits may occur, their hunt- 
ing grounds are selected so far as possible on different streams or lakes; 
their wanderings are apparently determined by scarcity or abundance 
of food, and they have no definite home. In confinement they are 
usually not unfriendly. Two females in a small enclosure in the National 
Zoological Park have been on good terms for eight years, but a male 
put in the inclosure with them some years ago was soon killed. For 
the past 18 months another female and a large male have been in the 
pen with them and while the three females are usually romping and 
playing together in the best spirits, one or all often pounce on the male 
and bite him savagely. Although much larger than any of the females 
he merely defends himself as best he can and backs away, refusing to 
either fight or run. It is evident that the males should be kept separate 
from the females except during the mating season, and it would almost 
certainly be necessary to isolate the females before the young were 
born and until they were well grown. 
“The number of young in a litter is usually given as two or 
three, but there are also records indicating four or five, and it seems 
probable that the smaller numbers are those of the first year of breed- 
ing. Data are extremely meagre on this point; but a number of records 
of families of five or six otters seen together in summer would indi- 
cate four or five young, while the uniform number of five mammae of 
the females would further indicate four as the normal number. 
