20th September: Sea Otters

This week is Sea Otter awareness week, so here are some facts about sea otters:

1. Sea otters belong to the family Mustelidae, meaning they are related not only to other types of otter, but also to weasels, Badgers and minks. It's the heaviest animal in the group and the only one that doesn't make a den or burrow.
2. They can happily live their entire lives without leaving the Water at all. They are extremely buoyant because they have larger lungs than animals of a similar size living on land. Air trapped in their fur also helps.
3. Talking of their fur, they have the thickest fur of any mammal. They don't have a layer of blubber to keep them warm like most aquatic mammals - the fur performs this function instead. It's made up of two layers, the top one being waterproof, and they have ten times as many hairs per square inch than a human has on their entire head.
4. Keeping their fur clean is very important - sea otters spend a lot of time grooming, untangling knots in their fur, removing loose fur, squeezing out water and blowing air in. While eating, they frequently roll over in the water to keep scraps of food out of their fur.
5. They are adapted in other ways to a life in water. When they dive, they can close their nostrils and ears. Their back feet are webbed and have one digit that is longer than all the rest. This helps them swim on their backs, but makes walking on land difficult. They can do it if they have to, but have an awkward gait.
6. We've all seen pictures of sea otters sleeping side by side in the water and holding hands. They don't just do it to be cute - it's to keep them from drifting apart. Sometimes large numbers of them connect in this way, and it's called rafting. A group of resting sea otters is called a raft. The largest raft ever seen contained over 2000 sea otters. They've also been known to wrap themselves in kelp while they sleep.
7. Very few animals use tools, but the sea otter is one. Mainly the tools they use are stones, which help them prise food off rocks and breaking the shells of the marine snails, Crabs, sea urchins and mussels they eat. Not only do they use tools, but when they find one they like, they'll keep it in the pouches they have under their forelimbs. The pouches are also useful for stashing food from under the water and bringing it up to eat on the surface.
8. Baby sea otters cannot swim or dive when they are born. The mother has to carry them around. They will have the buoyant fur, which helps. When the mother has to dive for food, she'll wrap junior up in kelp so he doesn't drift off while she's down there.
9. They don't have many predators. A lot of predatory animals don't like their pungent scent. It's not unknown for a young animal to kill a sea otter and then not eat it. Orcas, sea lions and bald eagles do find them tasty and are their main predators. Great white Sharks often attack sea otters but there's no evidence that they eat them. And, needless to say, humans have hunted them for food and for their fur.
10. Sea otters are what is known as a keystone species, which means they are vital for the ecology of the oceans. They prey on the sea urchins which eat the carbon-absorbing kelp forests.

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