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In September 2014, a person taking an evening walk on a California beach heard the cry of a newborn sea otter. The citizen notified authorities. Scientists studied the situation and decided the otter pup could not be retrieved that night. The following morning, the pup was still in the same location. Since she had apparently been orphaned, the scientists rescued her. She was thought to be only one week old.
Sea otters must eat at least 25 percent of their body weight every day. The newborn female had been separated from her mother for at least 16 hours. She needed prompt feeding in order to survive. The pup was delivered to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. The aquarium is a leader in rescuing and conserving sea otters. The aquarium helped stabilize the pup. The pup spent a month receiving care in California.
The baby, called Pup 681, was then sent to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Shedd Aquarium is dedicated to marine mammal care and conservation. Pup 681 was five weeks old, less than two feet long, and weighed a little less than six pounds. She received constant attention from animal care and veterinarian teams. Tim Binder, vice president of Animal Collections at the aquarium, discussed the situation in a press release. “Pup 681’s situation was urgent,” he said. “We were perfectly positioned to ensure that this little pup had a home.”
Sea otters are members of the weasel family. They are the smallest marine mammals that live in the ocean. Pup 681 is a southern sea otter, also known as a California sea otter. Southern sea otters live along the coast of California. They can grow up to four feet long, and adult females can weigh 35 to 60 pounds. In the wild, they may live 15 to 20 years. Currently, the population in the wild is fewer than 3,000.
An adult female will usually give birth to one pup each year. Sea otters give birth in the water. Typically, a mother floats on her back, holding her baby to her chest to nurse it. Pups usually stay with their mothers for about eight months. During this time, they learn life skills. Young otters learn to swim and hunt by watching their mothers. Sea otters ordinarily spend most of their time in the water. However, they may sometimes come ashore to sleep.
A young sea otter must learn many skills, such as foraging for food and grooming, in order to survive. Otters spend up to four hours a day grooming because they need a clean, healthy coat of fur to stay warm. Because Pup 681 was orphaned, human experts stepped in to teach her important life skills. “Our animal care team
is teaching the pup how to be an otter,” Binder said. They began by feeding her formula from a bottle. She moved on to eating solid foods, such as shrimp and clams. They helped her learn other important skills such as grooming.
While people help Pup 681, they will also learn from her. They can study her biology and behavior. Binder also hopes learning about sea otters will “encourage people to preserve and protect them in the wild.”
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