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In California, the southern sea otter … Rafts/Pods . Sea otters are estimated to have once numbered between 150,000-300,000 individuals and their range stretched from Baja California, Mexico, around the northern Pacific Rim to Japan.
Male sea otters will kidnap sea otter pups and hold them underwater until the female gives up her food.
Early in the twentieth century, resource agency personnel in California began observing a small surviving group of sea otters off Monterey County (Bryant, 1915). Moreover, sea otters … It is believed that a sea otter will wrap itself with kelp before sleeping at the surface to keep itself from drifting away.
Specialized for swimming, sea otters spend the most of their lives in the ocean but can be found on land especially when there is a potential storm or a high population density (Allegra, Rath and Gunderson, 2012). These carnivores eat a variety of seafood, such as fish, frogs, crayfish, crabs and mollusks.
When a group of sea otters has gathered into a raft/pod they are either doing one of two activities: resting or sleeping.
OTTERS ARE BIG ON PLAY TIME, AND MAKING SLIDES IS AMONG THEIR FAVORITE GAMES.
In 1913 the State of California prohibited taking of sea otters and possession of sea otters or their pelts (Wild and Ames, 1974). When mothers leave the pups wrapped in kelp to hunt, pups bob on the surface of the ocean like a cork.
Even a baby sea otter can stay warm on the open ocean, but they do need some help from their mothers.
Aquatic Mammals 2010, 36(4), 219-229, DOI 10.1578/AM.36.4.2010.219 Lesions and Behavior Associated with Forced Copulation of Juvenile Pacific Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina richardsi) by Southern Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris nereis)Heather S. Harris,1 Stori C. Oates,
Friends of the Sea Otter (FSO) is an advocacy group, founded in 1968, dedicated to actively working with state and federal agencies and other groups to maintain, increase and broaden the current protections for the sea otter, a species currently protected by state and federal laws, and with two geographic populations on the Endangered Species list. Variation in their current status, and in the rate and pattern of recovery, provides an opportunity to use the comparative approach to elucidate how various natural and human-caused stressors affect population health and dynamics.
The pups' fur traps so much air that they actually cannot dive under water. Because males steal food from females if they get a chance, females tend to avoid males except when mating and forage in separate areas. It is made up of a waterproof top layer and a short underlayer, which can contain as many as one million hairs per square inch. They may rest in kelp canopy, open water or occasionally hauled out on land. A sea otter will float on its back, place a rock on its chest, then smash the mollusk down on it until it breaks open. A sea otter’s pelt is the thickest of any mammal.
They commonly feed in small groups. Mothers spend much time grooming pups and often carry … Sea otter moms will abandon pups to die of starvation if the mom isn’t healthy enough to raise the pup.
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