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Sea otters
- 1. SEA OTTERS JESSY PRANGER Vancouver Vancouver Aquarium
- 2. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS • DARK BROWN FUR, SUN-BLEACHED HEAD • LARGER THAN RIVER OTTERS • THICKEST FUR OF ALL MAMMALS
- 3. VARIATIONS • TWO VARIATIONS WITHIN U.S.: NORTH & SOUTH • MALES ARE LARGER, FEMALES HAVE A NOSE-SCAR • CREATE LARGE GROUPS CALLED “RAFTS” otterproject.or g
- 4. VOCALIZATION & SCENT • ROUGHLY NINE VOCALIZATIONS: SQUEAKING, GROWLING, SQUEALING, ETC. • BODY LANGUAGE AND NON-TERRITORIAL CREATURES • SCENT OF A SEA OTTER
- 5. FOOD • PRIMARILY CARNIVOROUS • TOOL USEAGE • ADULT VS. YOUTH HABITS Vancouver Aquarium
- 6. PREDATORS • HUMANITY AS PREDATOR • COMMERCIAL FISHING • OIL SPILLSMike Baird
- 7. PREDATORS CONT. • SHARKS • EAGLES • SCENT GLANDS AS DEFENSE?
- 8. MOVEMENT • MINIMAL HABITUAL MOVEMENT • STAY IN “RAFTS” • PURSUIT OF A MATE Vancouver Aquarium
- 9. EFFECTING THE HABITAT • POSITIVE IMPACT OF HIGH SEA OTTER POPULATIONS • KELP POPULATION AND ROCK MOVEMENT
- 10. THANK YOU! Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium Oregon Zoo
Editor's Notes
- Characterized by their dark brown fur and sun-bleached head, rather than the sleek looking river otter. Also weigh, roughly, about twice to three times what a river otter weighs (roughly 45 to 65 lbs depending on if boy or girl, in comparison to the 20-25 lbs of a river otter). Their fur is the thickest of all mammals because they spend the vast majority of their time in the water, and without any blubber the thick fur helps keep the cold water out. Also kept super clean in order to keep the cold from getting in.
- Within the United States there are two major varities: the norther sea otters that dwell around Alaska, and the southern ones which live around the coast of California. The men are generally twenty or so lbs larger than the females, and Northern sea otters can be as large as 100 lbs! It’s generally easiest to tell them apart by gender based on the scar that female sea otters get on their nose from mating, where the male sea otter bites them hard enough on the nose during ejaculation. Social creatures, they spend most of their times in rafts made of up of the same gender, and while males are known to travel further away from where they were born, female sea otters tend to stay close to wherever it was they were born.
- There are nine recorded vocalizations of the sea otters, though most of their communication is done non-verbally. When a pup is trying to talk to its mother it uses squeals, or when an unknown male swims into a territory or raft that isn’t his own, the other sea otters may seem outwardly aggressive by growling at the newcomer, or splash their tails in the water to convey that he’s not welcome. However, the majority of this is simply for show, as the sea otters are not incredibly aggressive creatures, and back off rather quickly. It rarely ever leads to fighting between sea otters. They do, however, have pungent, powerful scent glands, which help in the identification of the otters and help to gain recognition when returning to a raft. It also can be offputting to some predators, keeping the sea otters safer.
- Sea otters are primarily carnivorous creatures, feeding on small fish, mollusks, sea urchins, shellfish, and the like. They utilize special rocks, which they may keep in a small flap of skin in their front paws, in order to pry open a clam or smash open a sea urchin, and then use their specialized claws to scoop out the meaty flesh of their prey so they can eat. Studies by Lairde have shown that young sea otters, due to the learning curve of hunting food, tend to spend most of their time diving beneath the surface in order to recover up to 20% of their body weight of food, while adult sea otters, who are much better at hunting due to experience, spend the majority of their time eating, or else cleaning their fur, as they are far more adept at finding food, opening it, and eating.
- Humans are marked down as one of the sea otter’s greatest enemies and predators. Before 1911, sea otters were hunted down for their fur, which was used to be made into caps or coats due to the thickness and sharp color, which was both pleasing to the eye and kept the humans who wore them warmer than other furs. Such an impact was made on the species, that in 1911 they became protected under the International Fur Seal Treaty, which made them illegal to hunt. However, today sea otters still stand at risk due to their consumption of lobsters, crab, clams, and other small crustaceans and fish that are trapped by humans and sold. If a sea otter is seen as eating too much of a fisherman’s product, he may decide to deal with the otter himself rather than risk losing out on the amount of fish he is able ot pull in. Oil spills, too, are enormous risks for sea otters, who must keep their fur clean if they are to keep from freezing in the chill ocean waters. Once their fur becomes dirty, or oily, it cannot keep the cold water out as well as it did before, and the sea otter will not only be able to dive deep enough to find its food, but it may not be able to withstand the cold at all, making life extremely difficult. Saying nothing, of course, what an oil spill does to their food supply.
- Aside from humans, Sharks are another great predator of the sea otters. When a sea otter swims too far north from their Californian Coastal home, they run the risk of entering shark territory, which can result in death for the small creature if they are not fast enough or able to get on land to help get away. Eagles, also, have been reported to steal small enough pups that have wandered their way inland, so sea otters have few safe places to hide when it comes to getting away from their predators. While their scent glands may act as a deterrent to some, it’s not always the case, and there have been a slew of reports of shark-bitten, dead sea otters being found but not eaten, due to the nature of their pungent scent glands.
- There is minimal habitual movement of a sea otter: they don’t tend to migrate, or move too far away from where their raft is located, though a few recorded instances have been made. Mostly, male sea otters move in order to seek out a mate, and as they are not monogamous creatures, they will search for as many partners as possible to increase their chances at successfully providing offspring. When mating, a male sea otter will clutch a female otter’s face with its paws and bite their nose, scarring the female’s nose and making identification of gender much easier. Male sea otters also have nothing to do with the rearing process of the pups; instead, they learn it all from their mother, and their mother’s raft. Female sea otters tend to have only one pup a year, and can go as long as two years in between births. The pup will stay on its mother’s chest for up to six months before it is able to start swimming and learning how to fend for itself.
- There is currently research being conducted on how a sea otter interacts with their natural habitat for the better to understand just what they contribute to the natural cycle. Sea urchins are one of a sea otter’s favorite food, and when there is a high sea otter population, the sea urchin population tends to dwindle in response. As sea urchins feed on kelp, the kelp population tends to increase as the sea urchins dwindle, and sea otters utilize kelp in order to safely secure themselves and their raft in a specific area, wrapping it around them like a “sea”t-belt, which allows for a larger raft to be made. Also, as sea otters forage for mussels they have a tendency to move the rocks around that the mussels live around, which opens up new pockets of areas for the mussels to grow, as well as other creatures, which aids in the general health of the ocean. If there are less sea otters, then there will be less kelp, less viable, new pockets of space, and the overall natural system of the sea suffers.