Range Description

The Spotted-necked Otter ranges from Guinea Bissau, the most westerly recorded range limit (Reuther et al. 2003), eastwards to south-west Ethiopia, and then southwards, in the west, to the northern border of Namibia, north-west Botswana and north-west Zimbabwe, and in the east, through west Kenya and Tanzania, Malawi, part of Mozambique, to eastern South Africa (Rowe-Rowe and Somers 1998; d'Inzillo Carranza and Rowe-Rowe in press). They are absent from Swaziland, and apparently locally extinct in Burundi, Ghana, Togo, and Lesotho (although they may never have occurred in this country) (d'Inzillo Carranza and Rowe-Rowe in press). The distribution of the species in West Africa, and possible presence on Bioko Island, is discussed by d'Inzillo Carranza and Rowe-Rowe (in press).