Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California
aquarium
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 [April 18, 2024]
By Rollo Ross and Jack Ferry
LONG BEACH, California (Reuters) - Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter
pups are found stranded off the California coast, often due to storms
that separate mother and offspring.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is partnering with the
Monterey Bay Aquarium to pair pups with surrogate sea otter mothers with
the hope of teaching them life skills and returning them to the wild.
As part of the program, the aquarium has successfully bonded their first
surrogate mom, called Ellie, and a currently unnamed pup.
"That mom is going to teach them all of the behaviors that we cannot
teach, being people," said Megan Smylie, the sea otter program manager
at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
"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," Smylie added.
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 square inch (6.45 sq cm) - they were
thought to be extinct until a colony of 50 was found off the coast of
Big Sur in the 1930s.
Now, the numbers are up to around 3,000 but more are needed not only for
the species' survival but also to protect California's near-shore
ecosystems.
"They are a critical sort of predator in that system that keeps
herbivores like sea urchins in check so that sea urchins don't
overpopulate and take out kelp forests and eel grass beds, as an
example," said Brett Long, a senior director at the Aquarium of the
Pacific.
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A view of sea otters at the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach,
California, U.S., April 11, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
The sea grass and kelp ecosystems are credited with creating
biodiversity, protecting against climate events and are a powerful
tool in carbon sequestration, Smylie said.
Sea otters may be super cute and cuddly, but Long also says they are
very territorial and are "just a wolverine in the water."
And their eating habits are pricey, as they consume 25 percent of
their bodyweight every day in restaurant-quality seafood. So a
45-pound (20-kg) otter eats 10-12 pounds (4.5-5.4 kg) of seafood a
day.
That means that feeding an otter costs the aquarium $40,000 a year
and demands constant fundraising.
The two aquariums have rescued eight stranded pups and hope other
organizations can join the effort to increase the population in the
wild and protect the California shore ecosystem.
"This is a bigger purpose," said Long. "This is a higher challenge.
So we invest and we invest a lot but we've all now learned and
appreciate, boy, you see that juvenile otter survive out in the
wild. That feels incredible."
(Reporting by Rollo Ross and Jack Ferry in Long Beach; Editing by
Mary Milliken and Sandra Maler)
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