MAMMALS OF MARYLAND 



p. 409) despite the fact that trappers, hunters, and collectors have been 

 working in the Maryland and Pennsylvania mountains since Colonial 

 times. 



RIVER OTTER 



Lutra canadensis lataxina F. Cuvier 



Lutra lataxina F. Cuvier, in Dictionnaire des sciences naturelle . . . 

 27:242,1823. 

 Type locality. — South Garolina. 



General distribution. — Coastal Plain and Piedmont of the eastern United States, 

 from western Connecticut and southern New York, south to South Carolina. 



Distrihution in Maryland. — ^The species is statewide in distribution. 

 The subspecies latojxina inhabits the Eastern Shore, Western Shore, 

 and Piedmont sections, but may be replaced by Lutra canadensis cana- 

 densis in the Ridge and Valley and Allegheny Mountain sections where 

 it is scarce or possibly absent (Bookhout, in correspondence) . No speci- 

 mens are available to establish the subspecific identity of the western 

 Maryland otters (if they occur there), but since L. c. canadeTisis has 

 been reported from the mountains of Virginia to the south (Handley 

 and Patton, 1947, p. 133) and West Virginia to the west (Kellogg, 

 1937, p. 453), western Maryland specimens, if land when obtained, 

 proba;bly will prove referable to L. c. canadensis. 



Figure 53. — Distribution of Lutra canadensis. 



