It has been ranked as "vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List since 1996, as it is threatened by habitat loss, pollution of wetlands and poaching for the illegal wildlife trade.

The smooth-coated otter has a short, sleek coat of dark-brown to reddish-brown fur along its back, with lighter grayish brown on its underside.

[2] Lutra perspicillata was the scientific name proposed by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1826 for a "brown" otter collected in Sumatra.

[3] Lutrogale was proposed as the generic name by John Edward Gray in 1865 for otters with a more convex forehead and nose, using perspicillata as the type species.

[4] By the 19th and 20th centuries, several early zoological specimens were described, including: The smooth-coated otter is the only living species in the monotypic genus Lutrogale.

[9] The smooth-coated otter is distributed in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and on Borneo, Sumatra and Java.

[10] It inhabits areas where fresh water is plentiful such as wetlands, seasonal swamps, rivers, lakes and rice paddies.

But where it is sympatric with other otter species, it avoids smaller streams and canals in favour of larger water bodies.

[18] Especially in areas where they share habitat with other otter species, they prefer larger fish, typically between 5 and 30 cm (2.0 and 11.8 in) in length.

They formed an undulating, slightly V-shaped line, pointing in the direction of movement and nearly as wide as the creek.

In this formation, they undulated wildly through the creek, causing panic‑stricken fish to jump out of the water a few metres ahead.

[20] Smooth-coated otters form small family groups of a mated pair with up to four offspring from previous seasons.

[2] The smooth-coated otter is threatened by poaching, loss and destruction of wetlands, as these are converted for settlements, agriculture and hydroelectric projects; water courses are being polluted by pesticides such as chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates.

[24] Six juvenile smooth-coated otters were discovered in a bag left at Bangkok International Airport in January 2013.