Otters are an essential keystone species. Along the Pacific coast, sea otters help control the sea urchin population. Fewer sea urchins in turn help prevent kelp forests from being overgrazed. The otter is one of the few mammals that use tools. Ever wonder where otters actually store these tools for safe keeping?
A group of resting otters is called a raft. Otters love to rest in groups. Researchers have seen concentrations of over 1, otters floating together. To keep from drifting away from each other, sea otters will wrap themselves up in seaweed, forming something that resembles a raft.
Otters might look soft and cuddly but remain dangerous wild animals. Otters have strong teeth and a powerful bite. So, whether you see an otter on land or at sea, be sure to maintain a safe distance of at least 5 kayak lengths or 60 feet from the otters. Learn more about staying safe around sea otters. Make sure to take pictures from shore or at least 5 kayak lengths from the otters and always use your zoom. Love these fun otter facts?
Check out this otter-worldly info. Photo by Lilian Carswell, U. Fish and Wildlife Service. A sea otter snoozes on its back — showing its hind legs, tail and webbed feet, which make otters great swimmers. A group of otters stay together for mutual protection from predators in the waters around Moss Landing, California.
Holding hands while sleeping is difficult for babies as they are too small to hold hands. To get around this, they ride on top of their mother. When the female parent has to hunt, they keep their pups safe by wrapping them in seaweed. By doing this, the pups do not float away, and the parent can find them easily.
Adults also use kelp to stop themselves from floating away when they sleep. The kelp grows from the seafloor up to the surface. By wrapping themselves in long strands of kelp, adults can stay in one place. They use the kelp as an anchor so they can sleep without any fear of floating out to the open ocean.
Otters also hold hands with each other and form what is called a raft. They always do this while sleeping and resting, and it is to keep families from drifting apart. Another reason why otters hold hands is to stop them from drifting too far from their food source.
The current can move them away from their food source, and the added weight of others helps them stay in one place. It is unclear if the river otter does hold hands while sleeping. They do not sleep in water like the sea otter.
The river otter lives in dens, where it is not easy to make observations, and research is unable to answer these questions.
This habit of the sea otter sleeping holding hands is a rare adaptation in mammals. It is one reason which makes these mammals unique from other species. Only sea otters hold hands as they swim on their backs with most of their body out of the water. River otters do not hold hands as they are almost entirely submerged when swimming with their back up. River otters sleep on land while the sea otter sleeps in the water.
Otters have no particular place where they sleep but will always look for somewhere that is safe. They either sleep in dens or above the ground. They can also sleep in the water, where they lay on their backs on the surface. When sleeping in the sea, otters will usually sleep in kelp strands, which keeps them from drifting too far.
Do you know how big beavers grow? Do their teeth ever stop growing? They also sleep wrapped in long strands of kelp like a blanket. The kelp acts like an anchor and prevents them from floating out to the open ocean. Of the 13 species of otter, IUCN lists five as endangered, five as near-threatened, and two as vulnerable.
Only the North American river otter is a species of least concern. Numerous threats to otters exist and primarily include pollution, habitat destruction, overfishing, and poaching. A cat parasite called toxoplasmosis also poses a threat to these creatures.
Found in cat feces, it enters waterways through runoff and flushable cat litter. Baby otters usually are called pups. They can also be called kits or kittens. Female otters are sows, and males are boars. Otter groups are called a family, bevy, lodge, or a romp. The latter is the most common term for a group of otters on land. A group of otters in the water is most often called a raft.
The giant otter is an endangered species found in South America, primarily along the Amazon river and the Pantanal. It is the longest of the otter species. Giant otters grow to as long as 6 feet and weigh as much as 75 pounds.
They eat 9 pounds of food each day. Poaching for their velvet-like fur caused significant population declines.
Threats also include habitat degradation, pesticides, and pollution from mining. Experts estimate that fewer than 8, exist. Hairy-nosed otters are an endangered species found in Asia. They were considered extinct until when scientists found small populations.
This rediscovery, after presumed extinction, makes them a Lazarus species. The biggest threats to hairy-nosed otters are poaching and habitat loss from wildfires, dam construction, and clearing swamp forests for oil palm plantations and fish farms.
Most otters have sharp claws at the end of each toe, which helps them to grab prey. However, there are three species of otter that have blunt claws or none at all. They are the Asian small-clawed otter, African clawless otter, and Congo clawless otter. These otters also have less webbing between their digits. This combination allows them to have greater nimbleness when foraging. River otters perform "scat dances" by stomping their hind feet and lifting their tail.
They then leave droppings called spraint, which researchers describe as smelling like violets. Otters have a communal latrine area. There they exchange information via chemical cues in feces. Otters also excrete something called anal jelly that contains secretions from anal glands and shed intestinal linings.
Sea otters don't just have the densest fur of all otters — they have the densest fur of all animals. Otters have as many as 2.
That thick coat is needed because otters are the only marine mammal without a blubber layer for insulation. To improve the insulating qualities, otters spend five hours grooming their hair each day. Hefty appetites aren't unique to giant otters: All otters eat 20 percent to 33 percent of their body weight each day.
They spend around five hours each day foraging. They tuck prey into pockets of loose skin under their arms and use rocks as tools to open shellfish. Otters' big appetites protect kelp forests by eating sea urchins. Without sea otters, the urchin population booms and destroys the kelp forest habitat.
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