No. They are marine mammals that spend most of their lives in the sea. Although you can find them on land, they cannot exist without water. Of all otter species, they rely on the water the most.
Sea otters live primarily along the North Pacific coast. They feel most comfortable in kelp beds. All otters except sea otters spend plenty of time on land. They have multiple land dens for various activities.
Sea otters live on land only during breeding season. They gather at beaches called rookeries. A male’s home range is about 23 square miles. The female’s home range overlaps but is smaller at 6 square miles.
For sea otters, hauling out on land lets them rest safely from predators, warm up faster, and stay warm longer. But they spend most time in water. They can live entire lives in water if needed.
Sea otters sleep floating at sea. They often sleep in strands of kelp which prevents drifting. It is illegal to keep them as pets in North America. Sea otters are crucial for gauging health of their ecosystems. If sea otters thrive, so do their habitats.
What are 3 interesting facts about sea otters?
Sea otters are the smallest marine mammals. Their fur is the densest of any mammal. Wild sea otters live 15 to 20 years. Sea otters eat ocean invertebrates like clams, crabs, and sea urchins. They use rocks to crack open hard shells. Sea otters have built-in pockets under their arms. Their populations recovered thanks to conservation.
River otters live in freshwater but hunt in saltwater. They have visible ears and move fast on land. Sea otters float on their backs while eating. Their loud screams may just seek attention. Most find the otter friendly.
Sea otters have over one million hairs per square inch. Their fur insulates them since they lack blubber. Sea otters eat 25% of body weight daily. Their fur traps oil, causing hypothermia. Sea otters influence their environment. They exhibit various vocalizations to communicate.
Where are sea otters usually found?
Sea otters live in coastal waters 15 to 23 metres deep, usually within a kilometre of the shore. They prefer areas protected from severe ocean winds like rocky coastlines, kelp forests and barrier reefs. Although strongly tied to rocky sea floors, they also inhabit muddy and sandy areas. Their long, sensitive whiskers and paws help them find prey by touch when waters are dark or murky.
Sea otters are diurnal, foraging in the morning, resting midday, then foraging again for a few hours in the afternoon. Females with pups tend to feed more at night.
They can be found in rocky shores, tide pools, kelp beds and barrier reefs in coastal areas spreading from Japan to California. Rocky terrain provides locations to find stones for cracking shells. They prefer to live near heavy kelp beds, which provide refuge, food and a place to sleep.
Their habitat is usually near the shoreline, but they can be found up to 50 miles out. They need safe spaces from predators and easy access to food sources like fish and shellfish that hide in kelp forests, which also provide them shade while resting on land between feeding.
Sea otters live in a variety of coastal marine habitats like rocky shores, sandy bottoms and coastal wetlands. They naturally prefer offshore areas with abundant food and kelp canopy. To prevent drifting while sleeping, they often tangle themselves in kelp forests or giant seaweed for anchorage, which is why they sometimes hold hands. While they can spend their whole lives at sea, they occasionally rest on rocky coastlines.
In the United States their north-south range is from San Mateo County to Santa Barbara in California. Alaskan sea otters live off the state’s south coast and down through British Columbia and Washington. Russian otters live off Russia and Japan in the western and northern Pacific.
How did sea otters almost go extinct?
Hunters and habitat loss rendered sea otters almost extinct along the coast of North America by the late 1800s. Sea otter populations have since begun to return, but slowly. They remain on the endangered species list.
Sea otters are a highly endangered marine mammal. They are at great risk of extinction due to many reasons such as fur trade, shark attacks, habitat degradation, oil spills, fishing nets, disease and being viewed as competition. In fact, at 850,000 to 1 million hairs per square inch, sea otters have the thickest fur of any mammal.
Between 1741 and 1911, the maritime fur trade fueled voracious large-scale hunting and trapping that devastated the species. Their numbers plummeted. The current southern sea otter population averages around 3,000 individuals. The population decline likely began in the mid-1980s.
Sea otter conservation began in the early 20th century, when the sea otter was nearly extinct due to large-scale commercial hunting. The sea otter was once abundant in a wide arc across the North Pacific Ocean, from northern Japan to Alaska to Mexico.
The treaty protected sea otters and other furred marine mammals. By the time it was adopted, however, sea otters were already widely believed to be extinct. In a curious twist of fate, a small colony of southern sea otters survived near Big Sur.
Without sea otters, sea urchins can overpopulate the sea floor and devour the kelp forests that provide cover and food for many other marine animals. Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and designated as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
For its fur the sea otter was hunted almost to extinction during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its former range – from northern Asia, around the top of the Pacific Ocean and down the North American coast to southern California – was reduced to a few remnant populations and about 1,000 individuals.
In the 1990s, it was thought extinct throughout its range in Southeast Asia due to habitat loss, poaching, local consumption of otter meat and a loss of its sources of food. The overhunting of sea otters along the Pacific Coast resulted in many fish losing their habitats as kelp was destroyed by sea urchins.
The population declined to a uniformly low density in the archipelago, suggesting a common and geographically widespread cause. These data are in general agreement with the hypothesis of increased predation on sea otters.