When you think of otters, you usually think of cute sea otters playing like puppies in the water. Giant river otters are definitely not as cute, although they do play and wrestle with one another. During our time at the Napo Wildlife Center in the Amazon rainforest we were fortunate enough to see a family of giant river otters on two separate occasions. They spent most of their time growling at us as we watched them from our canoe, but they still chased each other and rolled around on the ground playfully. Perhaps it is the harshness of living in the environment of the jungle that makes them a little more fierce and not as cute as other otters. They are also larger than most other otters, apparently as large as 70 pounds, which that adds to their impression. They are considered to be endangered, so seeing them is quite rare and we were very fortunate to have that opportunity more than once. We took a lot of photos and videos of them, but it probably won’t truly demonstrate what it was like to sit in a canoe just a few feet away from these fascinating creatures.