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Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often because of storms separating mother and pup, according to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.

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otters 04132024

Reuters

<div><span style="caret-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);color:rgb(0, 0, 0)" id="isPasted"></span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often because of storms separating mother and pup, according to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">It&#x27;s partnering with Monterey Bay Aquarium to introduce surrogate mother otters to the stranded pups in the hopes of returning them to the wild.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">As part of the program, the aquarium has successfully bonded their first surrogate mom, called Ellie, and a currently unnamed pup.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;That mom is going to teach them all of the behaviors that we cannot teach being people,&quot; said Megan Smylie, the sea otter program manager.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">She added &quot;That adult female will start to mimic behaviors that the pup should learn, will help it groom, will help it forage, will help it teach prey manipulation, how to open up shells and anything that they would need to know that humans are unable to teach them.&quot;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">California sea otters are a protected species. After being relentlessly hunted for their unique fur (they have the densest hair of any animal with up to a million hairs per inch), they were thought to be extinct until a colony of 50 was found off the coast of Big Sur in the 1930s.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Now, the numbers are up to around 3000 but more are needed for not only the species&#x27; survival but also to protect California&#x27;s near-shore ecosystems.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;They are a critical sort of predator in that system that keeps herbivores like sea urchins in check so that sea urchins don&#x27;t overpopulate and take out kelp forests and eel grass beds as an example,&quot; said Brett Long, a senior director at the Aquarium of the Pacific.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Smylie added &quot;This is super important because if those populations get out of control, then sea grass and the kelp ecosystems, they get destroyed and those are incredibly important ecosystems. They create biodiversity, they create protection against climate events and it is an incredibly powerful tool in carbon sequestration.&quot;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">But it&#x27;s not cheap looking after sea otters. They fight off the cold with an &quot;inner furnace&quot; by eating 25 percent of their bodyweight ever day.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Smylie said &quot;For one year, every otter is about 40,000 dollars. That is a bill that the aquarium fronts themselves and so we are constantly doing fundraising and when guests come the aquarium and visit, a portion of those proceeds come to support these conservation programs.&quot;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Otters are an internet favorite, with images of them holding hands and hugging often going viral. But they are not always as cuddly as they look.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;I&#x27;ve worked with them for a long time and I have to admit that they&#x27;re cute,&quot; said Long, adding &quot;But them looking cute is not what their behavior is. They&#x27;re in the weasel family, Mustelids, and they can be very... like badgers, weasels, wolverines, they&#x27;re very territorial. They&#x27;re water-based and so we don&#x27;t interact with them a lot but even though they look cute and cuddly, they are just a wolverine in the water.&quot;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Between them, the two aquariums have rescued around 8 stranded pups, but are hopeful other organizations will join in the program to help out.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">If they could do that, more otters would be able to join the population, and help protect the California near-shore ecosystems.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;This is a bigger purpose,&quot; said Long. &quot;This is a higher challenge and so we invest and we invest a lot but we&#x27;ve all now learned and appreciate, boy, you see that juvenile otter survive out in the wild. That feels incredible.&quot;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/2/27/small-clawed-sea-otters-namataan-sa-tawi-tawi-1507" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Small-clawed sea otters, namataan sa Tawi-Tawi</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 15pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><strong>(Production: Jack Ferry, Rollo Ross)</strong></span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div>

<p>Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often because of storms separating mother and pup, according to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.</p>

Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California aquarium

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Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California aquarium

Reuters

Published Apr 13, 2024 11:46 AM PHT

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