Otto

•Enhydra•lutris•

December 9th

Otto is a North Pacific Sea Otter who lives in the waters of Alaska. He has tons of friends, and for them, it's always playtime.

Sea otters spend most of their time in the ocean, diving, spinning around, wrestling, but when they get bored, they waddle onto land, scuttling up and rolling down beach slopes 'til they're dizzy. That's what's cool about having back flippers and front paws. The whole world is your oyster.

Otto loves to eat clams more than anything else. He puts them on his belly and uses rocks like tools to pry them open. He can catch fish with his paws and he also eats sea urchins and the occasional octopus!

When he was just a pup, he would dive for starfish and colorful pebbles, which he still does, sometimes, when no one is looking. He can hold his breath under water for a full five minutes.

Otters are unlike any other marine mammals because they have no blubber. Instead, they are covered in thick, fluffy fur. And actually, the flufflier they can make their fur, the better they float. Sometimes they float so well that, while napping, they float off to sea. So they wrap themselves in kelp or hold paws to anchor themselves.

Because Sea Otters rely on their fur, oil spills hit them really badly, devastating entire otter communities. This has been a problem in both their Alaskan and Californian territories. Besides oil spills, otters have to worry about all other sorts of water pollution, over-fishing, and now, orca attacks. Orcas don't tend to eat sea otters, they're usually too small to be targets, but since the seals and sea lions are becoming endangered as well, orcas are taking smaller prey and the otters are suffering.

Not only are otters super cute, they're also valuable ecologically. They eat sea urchins and too many sea urchins are bad because they eat all of the kelp that lots of different animals need as food and coverage to survive. So, since Otto and all of his friends are busy saving the kelp and all of the animals that rely on it, they don't have time to save themselves. That's our job!

Listen to a clip from the Global HeartWarming Album, Composed by Will Collins!

-Otto: Otter I Do-

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