N O T E F R O M T H E E D I T O R - Otter Specialist Group

IUCN Otter Spec. Group Bull. 25(1) 2008(Sebastian, 1995). It is possible that there are populations in Lao People's DemocraticRepublic (which has given it legal protection despite having no records of itsoccurrence), and elsewhere in Indonesia.Current Geographical RangeAt present, the Hairy-Nosed Otter is definitely known to exist in sevenlocations:Country Location Evidence ReferencesThailandToa Daeng peatswamp, NarathiwatprovinceLive capture, cameratrapping, observationKanchanasaka (2001)ThailandKhao Banthad wildlifeReserve, TrangProvinceObservation, cameratrappingKanchanasaka et al.(2003)VietnamU Minh ThuongNational ParkObservation, cameratrappingNguyen Xuan Dang etal (2001)Vietnam Vo Doi Nature Reserve Observation, cameratrappingNguyen Van Nhuan etal. (2008)Cambodia Tonle Sap lake Skins, observation, Olsson et al. (2007)camera trappingCambodia Cardamon Mountains Skins, observations,camera trappingSimpson (2007);Olssen et al. (in prep)SumatraSekayu District,Southern SumatraRoad kill Lubis (2005)Recommended High Priority Areas of Research• Northern Myanmar: this area should be surveyed even though it is so far out of theknown historic range because of the existence of the skin described by Duckworth(2008).• A corridor along the Tonle Sap river between the known ranges in Cambodia(Tonle Sap) and Vietnam (Mekong Delta)• The former range in Malaysia, because there are no recent records as nobody hasbeen surveying for this species.• A second area in Sumatra that was formerly part of the historic range, but whichhas not been recently surveyed for these animals, plus any suitable habitat linkingit to the known location.• The island of Borneo should be surveyed wherever this is possible as suitablehabitat still exists, it was part of the historic range, and there are some (not veryreliable) recent anecdotal reports. On Borneo particularly, there is muchmisidentification of otters as the standard reference used (Payne and Frances,2005) is very poor in distinguishing the species – the illustrations for Aonyx, Lutralutra and Lutrogale appear identical except in scale, and there is no illustration- 49 -