Otters' Shifting Territories in Singapore
Singapore is home to over 6 million people and is one of the most biodiverse cities in the world. Charismatic fauna have appeared in a range of documentaries. One of the most famous is arguably the city’s otters.
Singapore is home to two native otter species: the large, urban-dwelling Smooth-coated Otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) and the smaller, mangrove-restricted Asian Small-clawed Otter (Aonyx cinereus). Smooth-coated otters are the largest species of otters in Southeast Asia, and they are relatively abundant in urban areas, often making use of rivers, canals, and mangroves to feed and play. Asian Small-clawed otters are, conversely, the world’s smallest otter, and they are a bit more elusive, preferring to stick to natural mangrove habitats, found primarily on offshore islands like Pulau Ubin.
The otters are regularly flagged as a conservation success story because the animals used to be abundant in the region, but by the mid-20th century they had locally disappeared. Urbanization and industrialization saw the waterways become filthy and inhospitable for the otters. Then, the famous “Garden City” campaign by the Singapore government changed everything. In 1993 when Singapore established the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, the city-state’s first wetland nature reserve, sightings of the animals increased. Otters are not conventionally thought to thrive in urbanized areas, but their comeback in Singapore has been marked as a huge urban conservation success, touting Singapore as a model city for wildlife conservation.
These medium-sized mammals form large family broods, sometimes with a single brood having up to 20 individuals, and their webbed-feet, small ears, and slick coats make them perfectly adapted to move through water environments. Smooth-coated otters are about 75cm tall and 45 cm long, and they are carnivores who enjoy eating fish, while their small-clawed cousins show a preference for molluscs. They have an opportunistic diet in cities, allowing them to adapt to the local context. For example, in the manmade waterways of Singapore, otters feed on an abundance of nonnative fish species.
Famous otter clans and their rivalries
Otters are considered “icons of Singapore,” and certain otter families have names based on their locations. Otters live in family groups averaging about 7 to 10 individuals, and it is estimated that at least 17 groups currently exist in Singapore. Some of these families definitely have local celebrity status. One of the most famous of these families is the “Bishan 5”, a family of five otters who were first spotted back in 2014 in Singapore’s Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, a park you might recall from our last episode on monitor lizards, where we touched on how river re-naturalization and park-making can transform urban spaces into multispecies commons. The Bishan 5 family made this large park their home and have become charismatic ambassadors for water management policies and responsible social conduct around wildlife in Singapore.
OtterWatch and OtterCity are two Facebook groups that track and record the antics of these otter families. They offer insight into individual otters. This includes the Bishan matriarch, who died in 2022 and is often praised for the success of the brood and its integration into urban life.
A couple years later, the Bishan 5 became the Bishan 10 when their family expanded with new pups. Then, things got dramatic when this family decided to go into the Marina Bay, putting them head-to-head with the Marina otter family living there. A series of aggressive, territorial encounters ensued between the two families, what became called the otter wars. The otters’ territorial drama was well-documented on the internet, with videos showing each clan in battle-like formation, charging toward the other in the open water. When the two families meet, they engage in a dramatic display of wrestling, splashing, and diving. The larger Bishan family wins this time, and the Marina family disperses in different directions. These battles redrew these two otter families’ territories.
The otter wars sparked a debate in the city about whether humans should engage. Should humans step in? When animals are in cities and embedded into urban life, do humans have a responsibility to intervene? When one sees the Marina otter family in distress from the Bishan otter family displacing them, some say, “let nature run its course,” while others argue that cities are a different context and that when humans have shaped the environment this much, they also inherit a duty of care to the animal denizens. At the height of the otter tensions in 2017, humans tried to intervene by making noises and waving umbrellas, urging the more aggressive Bishan family to leave the Marina otter family alone, who also recently suffered the loss of their sick patriarch. The intervening humans succeeded in preventing a gruesome battle but this was just one of many conflicts between the otter clans.
Timeline of Otter Wars: The Otter Re-Territorialization Triptych
Otters engage in complicated negotiations for space and the ways in which their various battles have resulted in shifting spatial relations has made following their movements a bit tricky, especially since the otter clans were originally named after where they were first found. Someone even created an “Otter Representation Constituencies” map, to capture the rough territorial boundaries of otter families that is comprehensible for a human. In the image that opened this blog, I have also attempted to showcase these movements. It showcases a three-part, shifting set of relations for territory in Singapore, many of which resulted from direct conflict between otter clans:
Part 1: Bishan vs Marina, Kallang Basin
Late 2013: Marina Otter Family Establishment in Kallang Basin and Marina Reservoir areas
2014: Five pups were born to Marina otter family
2015: One pup went missing and another left the family
2015 CONFRONTATION: Bishan otters moved south from their territory at Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park via the Kallang River, fought with Marina otter family, and chased them out. Marina otter family moved to East Coast. Bishan Wins, VIDEO.
2016: New otters born into Marina otter family
2015 to 2016: Attempts made by the Marina otter family to return to Marina Reservoir, but thwarted by the Bishan otter family.
2017: Two otters (Bishan female and Marina male) from rival groups enter a relationship despite (or because of?) the rivalry (Bishan female, Marina male)
Part 2: Zouks vs Bishan
2018: A group of otters living near Zouk nightclub formed when a male from the Marina family paired with two females from the Bishan family. Unlike other established otter families that hold strict, defended territories, the Zouks are known for being "nomads." They roam through heavily urbanized parts of central and southern Singapore, using the extensive canal networks to hunt and raise their pups.
2020s CONFRONTATION: Becoming the largest otter family in Singapore thus far, the Zouks occasionally clash with other otter families, including the Bishan family. VIDEO.
Part 3: Zouks vs Marina
2020 CONFRONTATION: 7 Zouks vs 10 Marinas at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. Marina Wins, VIDEO
The Zouk family had recently been venturing into Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, extending beyond their usual range in southern Singapore
While human onlookers watched from a distance, the Zouk and Marina families went head to head. The Marina otters eventually backed off the invading Zouks and the two families carried on. The Marina family seemed to have successfully protected its territory in the park waters.
There is nothing to suggest battles and territorial reconfigurations are over. From reading blogs and otter-watching threads I've managed to figure out that, the Marina family is now in Bishan, the Bishan family is now in Marina Bay, and the powerful, nomadic Zouk family is in both Bishan and Marina, pushing out the ever-diminishing Marina family and humbling the once mighty Bishan family. The otters’ land politics are likely more complicated than we can ever understand. Simultaneously, the otters’ contestation of territories is quite relatable to humans behavior.
These clashes are reminiscent of the idea of the multispecies commons that Marcus Baynes Rock raised in a previous episode of The Animal Turn. Marcus discusses the clashing of clans of hyenas in Harar, in Ethiopia where the presence of the animals is expected, even encouraged and humans are finding ways to respect in animal politics, but not always successfully. A territorial clash was unwittingly caused by a human wanting to help a poisoned by hyena, when they dragged a hyena from one clan into another clan’s territory. This raises an important question of how multispecies cities should respond to violence among animals.
Transgressive predation and violence
Even with these challenges in Singapore, otter numbers are increasing in the city. However, as different groups of otters try to establish themselves in different territories, new conflicts are emerging. This includes predation of ‘expensive Khoi’ in a private estate, which has led to authorities relocating otters. The otter family that ate the khoi sought refuge in the wealthy estate after facing territorial competition from another family, leaving them transient and in search of easy prey like koi fish.
The question of violence is worth discussing in the context of otters and conservation in Singapore. Many had considered otters’ territorial behaviors toward other families as violent, especially when there are otter fatalities associated with these fights. Animals in urban spaces are not passive, they are active in practicing politics with each other. The otters have also been characterized as violent for the killing koi fish. When they stop traffic occasionally, they are labeled nuisances. As the otter population grows, run-ins with humans are only going to become more frequent. In 2021, a man was bitten 26 times by multiple otters in a family after another passing runner allegedly trod on them and startled them. These otters had previously been known for being patient around humans, but instances like that can rattle the public.
These growing tensions are starting to shape new policies and regimes of control. Earlier this year in 2026, Singapore National Parks Board, or NParks, announced that it is actively studying measures to control the population of otters. Sterilization, habitat modification, and translocation are all on the table, but remember, Smooth-coated otters are considered a “vulnerable” species on the IUCN Red List, and they are native to Singapore. Singaporeans also celebrated their return. The pivot toward population control, not just for otters but for other species, will define Singapore’s conservation in the coming years.
Conservation rhetoric and the right to the city
Throughout this season, I’ll be crediting NParks for the genuinely important work in bringing many species from the brink of extinction. While they’ve become Singapore’s authority in conservation, it doesn’t mean we should accept their decisions uncritically. Conservation rhetoric can potentially obscure the violent relationships that might be happening and the human supremacism driving these choices. In this case, it is important to distinguish that these population control decisions seem to be driven more by human inconveniences rather than ecological overpopulation.
As scholars Khoo and Lee ask in their work: “With many otter populations elsewhere in the world still at risk from the effects of urbanization, what lessons can cities learn from the success of Singapore to facilitate the return of otters into their own urban areas?” But now that the otters are back, the question is what kind of coexistence we’re willing to commit to and what occurrences we can accept as parts of multispecies cities.
If we think about the animals in the city as having a right to be there, then these interactions raise a host of important political questions. If we have policies and protections in place for these other residents there is a potential to create more just and inclusive cities that account for the rights of many animals to urban areas. Still, if we fail to think about how conflict and politics with animals might be negotiated, in ways that extend beyond rhetoric of conservation, then we run the risk of a deficient and possibly even violent relationship with them.
Of interest:
Rebecca Shen a landscape designer, artist, and animal activist. She is inspired by design to advance interspecies justice and imagine more anti-speciesist spaces. Rebecca graduated with a Master in Landscape Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2023. There, she completed her design thesis, Sanctuary State: California’s Cowscape in Transition, which envisions the transformation of an 800-acre industrial cattle feedlot into a cow sanctuary in the San Joaquin Valley. Rebecca contributes as an assistant content creator for the show.
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