Endangered Species Series - The Sea Otter

"The Species of Origin" matures and begins to come into its own

Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)

Sea Otter photo by Tsuneo Nakamura

• Average weight: - Male: 32 to 41 kg - Female: 18 to 27 kg
• Average height: 1.4 m
• Average lifespan: 15 to 20 years  
• Fur: 1.6 to 2.6 million hairs per square cm (thickest of any animal in the world)
• Gestation: 6 to 8 months
• Litter Size: 1 pup, but sometimes giving birth to twins

• Threats: Oil spills, habitat loss and degradation, food limitation, disease, fishing gear entrapment and conflict with shellfish fisheries. 

About:

Although they may look clumsy on land due to mismatched leg sizes, it’s for good reason. The strong hind legs endowed with webbed feed allow amazing manoeuvrability while paddling at great speeds, while the small front legs boasting stiff toes assist with complex food handling. They are the second smallest marine mammals but the largest of the weasel family.

Rather than blubber it’s very thick fur that keeps these marine mammals warm in the icy Pacific Ocean waters. Two layers provide insulation by trapping air between a thick under-fur and a “guard hair” fur layer, which changes colour with age, often from black, pale brown, to silver. 

These hungry little guys are capable of eating ¼ of their body weight a day. They’re preferred snacks are abalones, clams, crabs, mussels, octopus, and sea urchins. After diving over 100 murky metres or slamming shellfish against small rocks in order to get to their food source, otters will then roll and float on their backs to have their meal, their chests becoming the diner table.

Since dirty, matted fur doesn’t work as efficiently to trap sufficient heat the sea otter spends a large of the day cleaning itself. Oil spills are a huge threat to the Sea Otter, making it impossible for the otter to clean away the sticky substance before it freezes to death.

Sea Otter Year-round Range according to Canadian Geographic

Although there used to be hundreds of thousands of Sea Otters living on the Pacific coast between Mexico and Alaska, in the 1700s the fur trade started picking away at their numbers dramatically, causing them to plummet down around 1000 to 2000 in the early 1900s, to the point where they had to be re-introduced to British Columbia (89 of them between 1969 and 1972). Vancouver Island & Goose Island now has an estimated 2500 Sea Otters living off their coasts. Off the coast of California, the numbers have been estimated to be around 2,700 as of 2010, while Canada, Alaska, and Washington combined have seen numbers between 64,600 to 77,300, Russia estimates around 15,000, and Japan only about a dozen according to Defenders of Wildlife.

What is their status? 

Endangered

From: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/otter.pdf 

"Following reintroduction the Sea Otter population in Canada has increased to about 900 animals and has been growing at a rate of 17 to 20 percent per year. The Sea Otter has been assigned Endangered status by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), and receives legal protection as a marine mammal under the Canada Fisheries Act. It has been placed on British Columbia’s Red List and has been legally designated as an Endangered Species under the Wildlife Act. Throughout their range in the U.S., Sea Otters receive protection under the Marine Mammals Protection Act. The California population, a separate subspecies (variety) named the “Southern Sea Otter,” is afforded additional Federal protection as a Threatened Species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act."

A few Important Sea Otter Pages - Info:

Defenders of Wildlife: www.saveseaotters.org

Sea Otter Alliance: http://www.seaotterresearch.org/

Sea Otter Research at WERC: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/otters/

Wildlife in B.C. at Risk: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/otter.pdf 

Note: there are various species of Otter - this is a Fact Sheet about the Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)

Note 2: This little guy is featured in the latest artwork I’m presently working on (to be a series). Stay tuned for more info (and the big unveiling), but in the meantime, please have a read and ...

~ Be The Change ~