AFUR-FARMING IN CANADA 83 



and small mammals or auy 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 tlirown 

 into the water and the animals seem to enjoy tisliing 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, 

 Habits the males travel widely in search of mates, apparently re- 

 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 fe- 

 males 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 tlie 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 

 oi food, and tliey have no definite home. In confinement they are 

 usually not unfriendly. 'J\vo 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 tJiem 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 wore 

 bom 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 arc 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 majnmae of 

 the females would further indicate four as the normal number. 



