An article by Richard Hoath describing some of his most recent encounters with the natural history of Egypt, including an email from a reader who thought he might have seen an otter: "The Cape Clawless Otter and the Spot-necked Otter, two African species recorded from the Nile, reach no further north than southern Sudan. However, one of the tomb friezes in the tomb of Mereruka at Saqqara bears a representation of what I am convinced is an otter. It is depicted in a papyrus swamp lying on its belly, eating away at a fish that is held in its forepaws. The head is typically otter, with a blunt muzzle and very small ears, the tail is stout with a thick stock and the paws, holding the fish, simply cry out, “otter.” If it is an otter, and I am convinced, then perhaps either the Cape Clawless or the Spot-necked Otter extended north to the Delta in Pharaonic times. The draining of the vast papyrus swamps would certainly have lead to its demise and, given that there is, to my knowledge, only one such portrayal, it may have been rare and elusive even then. The other possibility is that the frieze depicts a captive animal brought back from an expedition to what is now Sudan. If the mystery mammal is not an otter, then what could it be?"
See the above article for the full story, including a possible mongoose depiction from Saqqara.
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