Question

Why was the otter named Maxwell's otter ?

Answer 1

Hint: The book Ring of Bright Water explains how in 1956, he carried back from Iraq a smooth-coated otter and raised it at Sandaig Bay on the west coast of Scotland in 'Camusfearna.'

Complete answer:
A Scottish naturalist and poet, Gavin Maxwell was best known for his non-fiction writing and his work with otters. He wrote the Ring of Bright Water book about how he took back an otter from Iraq and brought it up in Scotland. The otter belongs to a previously unknown sub-species that was later named after Maxwell. More than a million copies of Ring of Bright Water were sold and turned into a film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in 1969. The narrator's otter, Mijbil, belongs to an unknown otter breed that was later christened Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli by zoologists. It was dubbed Maxwell's Otter, since it was Maxwell's horse.
The book Ring of Light Water by Maxwell explains how in 1956, he carried back from Iraq a smooth-coated otter and raised it at Sandaig Bay on the west coast of Scotland in 'Camusfearna.' He took the otter to the London Zoological Society, renamed Mijbil, where it was determined that it was a previously unknown smooth-coated otter subspecies. Consequently, Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli was named after him. While it was believed to have become extinct in Iraq's alluvial salt marshes as a result of the area's large-scale draining that began in the 1960s, recent surveys show that large populations exist throughout its range.

Note: The youngest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Aymer Maxwell and Lady Mary Percy, the fifth daughter of Northumberland's seventh Duke, was Gavin Maxwell. The archaeologist, politician and natural historian was his paternal ancestor, Sir Herbert Maxwell, 7th Baronet. The otter was of a species originally unknown to science and was named at length by Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli or Maxwell's otter zoologists.