Commonly mistaken for the smooth-coated otter as it shares much of its distribution range with it, this could be any of the six species found here among the grey mongoose, ruddy mongoose, small indian mongoose, crab-eating mongoose, brown mongoose or the stripe necked mongoose. These fierce omnivores are frequently mistaken for otters at a glance due to their size and shape.

Out of the 8 different species of civets that are found throughout India, three of them have some of their distribution overlapping with the Asian-small clawed otter, while many have an overlapping distribution with the other two species of otters as well. Therefore, when out in the wild or when reviewing photographic/video footage it is possible to mistake some of these species for the other.

The Eurasian otter’s distribution throughout India is quite limited compared to the smooth-coated otter and the Asian-small clawed otter. The species is mainly distributed up north, in the Himalayan foothills and down south, in the southern Western Ghats, therefore, not many mammals can potentially be mistaken for it, except maybe, for the marten. In the south, the Nilgiri marten the only marten species native there, and in the north for the Yellow-throated marten.