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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature: Sea Otter


The southern sea otter is a carnivore. Sea otters grow to approximately four feet in length, with the male weighing approximately 65 pounds and females about 45 pounds. Unlike other marine mammals, sea otters do not have a thick layer of blubber and rely upon their dense fur for insulation. The average person has about 600,000 hairs on their head; the sea otter has two million hairs per square inch. The fur is sensitive to soiling from oil or other contaminants. Soiling of the fur by oil generally results in death.

This aquatic member of the weasel family is found along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The sea otter spends most of its time in the water but, in some locations, comes ashore to sleep or rest. Sea otters have webbed feet, water-repellent fur to keep them dry and warm, and nostrils and ears that close in the water.
sea otters can be seen off the coast of California Otters tend to grow white patches on their head as they grow older. Otters are equipped with pouches or flaps of skin under each front leg that they use to store food while foraging.

Sea otters are the only otters to give birth in the water. Mothers nurture their young while floating on their backs. They hold infants on their chests to nurse them, and quickly teach them to swim and hunt. Adult female otters give birth to a single pup nearly every year. Pups have long black or brown hair and are so buoyant that they can not dive underwater. Pups are often seen bobbing beside or resting upon mothers.

Sea otters are meticulously clean. After eating, they wash themselves in the ocean, cleaning their coat with their teeth and paws. They have good reason to take care of their coats—it helps them to remain waterproof and insulated against the cold. Sea otters have thick under-fur that traps air to form an insulating layer against the chilly waters (they have no insulating fat). This coat is invaluable to otters, but it has worth to some humans as well.
The sea otter is the smallest marine mammal in North America yet has a huge affect on its ecosystem, enhancing both diversity and primary productivity. Sea otters are known to be a keystone species, an indicator species and an umbrella species. They have a remarkable impact on conservation of the near-shore marine environment.

In California, sea otters spend between 17 to 38 percent of their time foraging and 50 to 68 percent of their time resting. Sea otter populations at carrying capacity  spend 51 to 58 percent of their time foraging and 32 to 34 percent of their time resting.

From evidence found in the fossil record, sea otters and their ancestors have been a component of California's ecosystem for the past five million years.
Sea otters enjoy swimming and floating near California nature Sea otters often float at the water's surface, lying on their backs in a posture of serene repose. They sleep this way, often gathered in groups. Otters sometimes float in forests of kelp, or giant seaweed, in which they entangle themselves to provide anchorage in the swirling sea.

Sea otters do more than sleep while floating on their backs. They are often seen with a clam or mussel and a rock that has been deftly snared from the ocean floor. Otters will place the rock on their chests, and repeatedly smash the shellfish against it until it breaks open to reveal the tasty meal inside. They also dine on such aquatic creatures as sea urchins, crabs, squid, octopuses, and fish. Sea otters eat the equivalent of 20 to 30 percent of their body weight per day to maintain their body heat.

It is thought that the only natural predator of sea otters are sharks. The range of the California Sea Otter is concentrated along a 200 mile stretch of the central coast.
Sea otters were hunted for their fur to the point of near extinction. Early in the 20th century only 1,000 to 2,000 animals remained. Today, 100,000 to 150,000 sea otters are protected by law.

The California sea otter is an endangered species success story that is not quite successful. California sea otters are listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act and "depleted" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Wiped out by the Pacific maritime fur trade, sea otters were believed to be extinct from California by the early 1900s. A small, remnant population of survivors was found living off the coast of Big Sur in 1938. Legal protections allowed the population to grow. The California population increased to 2,400 in 1995 before mysteriously beginning to decline. It began to grow again in 1999, and has grown in fits and starts until 2009, when the population entered another decline.
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