Otter Trivia for Kids
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98 free Otter Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This otter trivia for kids quiz is written for children aged about 7 to 12 and for the parents and teachers reading it out. It covers the things kids most want to know: why sea otters float on their backs, how they crack open shellfish with a rock, why they wrap themselves in seaweed, what a baby otter is called, where the biggest and smallest otters live, and why river otters love sliding down muddy banks. There are also questions about the storybook and TV otters: Tarka, Emmet Otter and the otters of Ring of Bright Water. Every question can be answered by a curious child who likes animals, and each answer comes with a short fun fact so nobody leaves empty-handed. There is nothing frightening in here. It suits a classroom nature lesson, an aquarium trip, a rainy afternoon or a car ride. All the answers were checked against Wikipedia and wildlife references, so grown-ups can read them out with confidence. All 98 questions are free with no sign-up. Older animal fans can move on to our main Otters trivia page or the Sea Otter quiz.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Otters belong to the same animal family as which of these?
Weasels and badgers
Otters belong to the weasel family, Mustelidae, alongside weasels and badgers; minks, martens and the wolverine are in the same family.
Q 02What is special about an otter's feet that helps it swim?
They are webbed
Otters also have long, slim bodies and thick fur that traps air, which keeps them warm and helps them float.
Q 03What is a baby otter called?
A pup
A baby otter is a pup. Pups are born with fur but cannot swim at first, so the mother keeps them in the holt, or, for sea otters, floating on her chest.
Q 04How old is a baby otter when it first learns to swim?
About two months
Otter pups first learn to swim at about two months old; the mother often has to drag reluctant pups into the water, and they stay with her for around a year.
Q 05An otter's home, dug under tree roots or rocks, is called what?
A holt
A lodge is a beaver's home and a sett is a badger's. Otter holts are often tucked under the roots of riverside trees.
Q 06What do most otters eat more than anything else?
Fish
They also snack on frogs, crayfish and crabs. In chilly water an otter needs to catch about 100 grams of fish every hour just to stay warm.
Q 07Which of these things do otters really do for fun?
Slide down mud into the water
Otters really do slide down muddy or snowy banks into the water, then climb back up to do it again; they also juggle small stones, apparently just for fun.
Q 08Roughly how long can an otter live?
Up to 16 years
Wild otters can live up to about 16 years, though most die much younger; river otters in zoos have reached their twenties.
Q 09Which kind of otter has the thickest fur of any animal in the world?
Sea
Up to 150,000 hairs fit in one square centimetre. Sea otters have no blubber, so the fur is what keeps them warm.
Q 10What tool does a sea otter use to crack open shellfish?
A rock
They bang clams and shellfish against a rock balanced on their chest to crack them open.
Q 11Where does a sea otter keep its favourite rock and the food it collects?
In a pouch of skin under its arm
The loose pouch stretches across its chest, and most sea otters prefer to use the left one.
Q 12How does a resting sea otter avoid drifting out to sea?
It wraps up in kelp
Kelp is a huge seaweed that grows in underwater forests. Mothers wrap their pups in it too, like a seatbelt.
Q 13How does a sea otter eat its dinner?
Floating on its back
A sea otter eats floating on its back, using its chest as a table; it tears food apart with its front paws, which it uses like hands, and pops it into its mouth.
Q 21A famous video of two sea otters holding paws was filmed in which city's aquarium?
Vancouver
The clip was filmed at the Vancouver Aquarium in 2007 and shows the otters Nyac and Milo drifting paw in paw; it became one of YouTube's most-watched animal videos.
Q 22Which ocean do sea otters live in?
The Pacific
Sea otters live only in the North Pacific, along the coasts of North America and eastern Asia, mostly in sheltered spots with kelp forests.
Q 23How long can a sea otter hold its breath at most?
About five minutes
A sea otter can hold its breath for about five minutes at most, though most dives last only about a minute while it hunts the seabed for clams, crabs and urchins.
Q 14Eating lots of spiny shellfish can turn a sea otter's teeth and bones what colour?
Purple
Pigment from purple sea urchins can stain a sea otter's teeth and even its bones purple; the otter bites through the underside of the urchin, where the spines are shortest, and licks out the inside.
Q 15About how much food does a sea otter need to eat every day?
A quarter to a third of its own body weight
A sea otter eats a quarter to a third of its own body weight every day, like a child eating around 60 hamburgers; it needs the energy to stay warm in cold seas.
Q 16Why can't a newborn sea otter pup dive underwater?
Its fluffy fur holds so much air it floats like a cork
Mum licks and fluffs the pup's fur for hours after it is born. It grows a grown-up coat later.
Q 17What does a sea otter pup sound like when it cries for its mother?
A seagull
A sea otter pup's cry sounds like a seagull's screech; mum leaves it floating on the surface while she dives for food, and it squeals loudly until she returns.
Q 18A group of sea otters resting together on the water is called what?
A raft
A group of sea otters floating together is called a raft; rafts are usually same-sex, males with males and females with females, though each otter dives for its own food.
Q 19Compared with other sea mammals, how big is a sea otter?
Some of the smallest
Sea otters are some of the smallest sea mammals: a big male weighs up to about 45 kilograms, about as much as a 12-year-old child, while a walrus can weigh over a tonne.
Q 20In which year did an international treaty finally stop the hunting of sea otters for fur?
1911
Sea otter hunting ended in 1911, when the international Fur Seal Treaty protected them; by then only about 1,000 to 2,000 remained of the 150,000 to 300,000 that once lived across the North Pacific.
Q 24Which of these continents has no wild otters at all?
Australia
Australia has no wild otters; otters live on every other continent except Antarctica, from the Eurasian otter in Europe to the giant otter in South America.
Q 25Along which great river do most giant otters live?
The Amazon
Most giant otters live along the Amazon and its tributaries, in family groups of three to eight; in Spanish they are nicknamed 'river wolves'.
Q 26What is a male otter called?
A dog
A male otter is called a dog, just as a male fox is; a female otter is called a sow.
Q 27North American river otters use their long whiskers for what?
Feeling for fish in dark water
They also have a see-through extra eyelid that works like swimming goggles.
Q 28What protects a river otter's eyes when it swims underwater?
A see-through inner eyelid
A see-through inner eyelid called the nictitating membrane slides across the otter's eye underwater, working like a pair of swimming goggles.
Q 29Why do river otters often swim right up close to boats and people?
They are short-sighted and curious
Their eyes are built for seeing underwater, so on the surface they cannot see very far and come closer for a look.
Q 30Where does one tunnel of a river otter's den usually lead?
Straight into the water
Straight into the water, so the otter can slip in and out; inside is a cosy nest chamber lined with leaves, grass, moss, bark and hair.