Otters are cute furry animals that has a graceful and agile swimming ability.
They need this critical skill to hunt to socialize the way they do.
Some people have a natural fear with animals such as dogs and cats. But few have an instinctive negative feeling against otters.
The Chinese name of the otter is shui ta (水獭).
During ancient times, and even now in some places, otters were trained to hunt for fish just like how dogs were trained to herd and catch sizeable pests.
So otters were actually making a significant contribution to families for finding food and even for merchants to catch fish for sale in the markets.
However despite the association of otters with catching fish, they symbolize and most well-known to represent sensuality. A lot of it.
It might be no coincidence that the mating season of otters can be very violent and aggressive for the mammal.
Even researchers have come across otters killing baby seals and performing sexual acts on them. Talk about cross-species!
The cultural belief is that otters have sexual activities above the average of other creatures. So much so that it is often said that if a male otter is unable to find a mate to satisfy it’s urge, it hugs a tree and dies on it.
This implies the meaning that it’s genitals are stuck on the tree and is stuck with it until death.
There are also various folk stories containing plots of otters under the guise of beautiful women to seduce men. So it’s reputation is somewhat like certain aspects of the fox.
When you have an otter painting to display, it is best not to hang it in the bedroom or you might attract romance with hidden agendas. And if you want your kids to concentrate on their studies, having otters as decorative items can induce the type of distractions that most parents would want to avoid.