Hydrictis maculicollis (Lichtenstein 1835)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 532-628 : 602

Hydrictis maculicollis (Lichtenstein 1835)

[Lutra] maculicollis Lichtenstein 1835 , Arch. Naturgesch., 1: 89.

Type Locality: "Kafferlandes am östlichen Abhange der Bambusberge." .

Vernacular Names: Spotted-necked Otter.

Synonyms: Hydrictis chobiensis (Roberts 1932) ; Hydrictis concolor (Neumann 1902) ; Hydrictis grayii (Gerrard 1862) ; Hydrictis kivuana (Pohle 1920) ; Hydrictis malculicollis (Roberts 1932) ; Hydrictis matschiei (Cabrera 1903) ; Hydrictis mutandae ( Hinton 1921) ; Hydrictis nilotica Thomas 1911 ; Hydrictis poensis ( Waterhouse 1838) ; Hydrictis tenuis (Pohle 1919) .

Distribution: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Dem. Rep. Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II; IUCN – Vulnerable as Lutra maculicollis .

Discussion: Reviewed by Larivière (2002 c). Pocock (1921 c) and Cabrera (1929) placed maculicollis in the monotypic Hydrictis ; however, Ansell (1978) and Harris (1968) considered Hydrictis a subgenus of Lutra (see comments under Lutra ). Two recent studies ( Koepfli and Wayne, 1998, and Bininda-Emonds et al., 1999) concluded that inclusion in Lutra would make Lutra paraphyletic. Van Zyll de Jong (1987) and Bininda-Emonds et al. (1999) suggested that Hydrictis and Lutrogale may be sister taxa. Subspecies not recognized ( Kingdon, 1997; Larivière, 2002 c).