FDC from Austria: Endangered animals

On January 8th the Austrian Post issued a set of two stamps on Endangered Animals. Many thanks to Florian for this nice FDC! On the cover you may see the issue date and the issue place: Vienna, the capital city of Austria and in German is written as Wien. Fischotter and Bachforelle are also in German. They are respectively known as European Otter and Brown Trout.

The European Otter is the most widely distributed otter species, its range including parts of Asia and Africa as well as being spread across Europe. It is believed to be currently extinct in Liechtenstein, and Switzerland, It is proven to be extinct in The Netherlands. They are now very common in Latvia, along the coast of Norway and in Northern Britain, especially Shetland where 12% of the UK breeding population exist. Ireland has the highest density of Eurasian otters in Europe. The European Otter's diet mainly consists of fish but can also include birds, incects, frogs, crustaceans and sometimes small mammals, including young beavers. In general this opportunism means they may inhabit any unpolluted body of freshwater, including lakes, streams, rivers, and ponds, as long as there is good supply of food. European Otters may also live along the coast, in salt water, but require regular access to freshwater to clean their fur.

The brown trout is fish of the same species. The brown trout is largely a freshwater fish, and the brown trout is normally considered to be native to Europe and Asia but the natural distribution of the migratory forms may be, in fact, circumpolar. There are also landlocked populations far from the oceans, for example in Greece and Estonia. The brown trout is a medium-sized fish, growing to 20 kg or more in some localities although in many smaller rivers a mature weight of 1 kg (2 lb) or less is common. The spawning behaviour of brown trout is similar to that of the closely related Atlantic salmon.