Partial CytB primers; CytB.S.A3 F: TGCCTGTTCCTACACGT and CytB.S.A3 R: AGTTAGTGATTACGGTTG, were developed based on aligned sequences of the cape clawless and spotted necked otter tissue samples generated above. Primers were positioned in areas flanking inter-specific sequence differences and were designed using OligoAnalyzer3.1(IntegratedDNA technologies) with the aim of amplifying a 130 bp fragment of the CytB gene. Additionally, a tissue sample of Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) from Hungary was analysed to determine the amplification success of these primers on related otter species. Amplicons for sequencing were generated using the above mentioned Dreamtaq PCR mastermix protocol.ThePCR conditions for the partial CytB primers were as follows:one cycle of 94 for 5 min then 10 cycles of 94 °C for 30s,55 °C for 50s and 72 °C for 1 min; 15 cycles of 94 °C for 30s,50 °C for 50s and72 °C for 1min; and lastly 20 cycles of 94 °C for 30s, 45 °C for 50s and72 °C for 1 min and finally one cycle at 72 °C for 10min. Purification,sequencing and sequence analysis was performed as discussed above.