Lost and found: noisy, tame and very active, Argentina delights in giant otter’s return

Decades after the world's biggest otter disappeared from the country, a kayaking trip revealed a lone male swimming in the Bermejo River

This really is a big animal," says Sebastian Di Martino, conservation director of Rewilding Argentina, emphasising the giant" in giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis). It can be 1.7 metres long ... the biggest otter in the world."

Until its recent rediscovery, the giant otter was feared extinct in the country as a result of habitat loss and hunting. Family groups were last seen in the 1980s in the Misiones province of north-eastern Argentina," Di Martino says. In the Bermejo River, the last sightings occurred 130 years ago, in 1898."