The Chungungo, or Sea Cat

[The next several posts will be from Chile, where we spent a wonderful two weeks in November and December.]

This is a Southern Marine Otter, Lontra felina., also known as a Gato Marino (sea-cat) , or Chungungo.

It is the smallest marine mammal, measuring 87 to 115 cm (34 to 45 in) from the nose to the tip of the 13in tail and weighing 3 to 5 kg (6.6 to 11.0 lb). This one is in the Pacific near the mouth of the Maullin River off the coast of Chiloé Island, eating mussels clinging to the rock.

It is found on the Pacific Coast of South America, from Peru to Tierra del Fuego and is the smallest American otter; its closest relative is the North American River Otter., which weighs about three times as much. It is not closely related to the more familiar sea otter of California and the Pacific north west, which can weigh nearly ten times as much.

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It only lives in salt water, and it likes rough and rocky coasts. Just after this photo was taken it was washed off the rock by a large wave, doing a dramatic mid-air somersault (no photo!).

Their dens are usually in caves, and they apparently spend much of their time on land, unlike the Californian sea otter.

Its coarse fur has 2 cm long guard hairs, covering a dense, insulating undercoat, which is why it was hunted for the fur trade. Now it is very hard to find, and we were lucky to see one after a long hunt.

The marine otter is dark brown with fawn on the throat and belly.

and it has webbed paws, with strong claws that allow it to eat both fish and crustaceans.

Here, it was following a clamming boat; the yellow hose in the photo below is the air supply to the invisible divers below water.

The divers dislodge clams, which the otters love. Like the better known and larger sea otters off California, they feed on their backs:

This charming animal is listed by the IUCN as Endangered . They’re legally protected in both Chile and Peru, but the laws are loosely enforced, and they are sometimes killed by fisherman , or for their fur.

To end with, I found this mini-documentary online that has really wonderful footage of a mother otter and her two cubs, both on land and underwater. The commentary is a little mystical for my taste, but the images are quite lovely.The filmmaker is Ben Goertzen , and it won awards at the Jackson Wild Film Festival in 2019.