sea otter

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Sea Otters Play Big Role in Preventing Erosion
How Sea Otters
Saved a Salt Marsh
NEW STUDY
Feb 9, 2024 2:48 PM CST

How Sea Otters Saved a Salt Marsh

Erosion slowed dramatically after they returned to the area and feasted on shore crabs

(Newser) - Vital salt marsh habitat in California was saved by a resurgence of the area's extremely cute top predator, researchers say. In a study published in the journal Nature , marine ecologist Brent Hughes and other researchers say sea otters dramatically slowed erosion in Elkhorn Slough in Monterey Bay, the nation'...

Surfboard-Stealing Otter's Aggression Explained by a Birth

Otter 841 spotted with pup off Santa Cruz

(Newser) - Attempts to capture an aggressive surfboard-stealing sea otter in California are on hold as "Otter 841" is now accompanied by a pup. The female sea otter has reportedly given birth and was spotted Wednesday "far off the Santa Cruz coast, rolling and spinning in the kelp and waves...

Watch Out for This Surfboard-Swiping Sea Otter
Surfing Otter Eludes
Capture Again
updated
Jul 20, 2023 11:38 AM CDT

Surfing Otter Eludes Capture Again

Officials say 'Otter 841' has been aggressively going after surfers off of Santa Cruz, California

(Newser) - A sea otter that has drawn national attention for its unique ability to steal surfboards from surfers and then hop aboard them continues to elude capture, reports the Los Angeles Times . This week, for example, California wildlife officials went out to the otter's known area by boat and put...

Where Did Oregon's Otters Go? Teeth Suggest an Answer

Oregon repopulation may have failed because the otters were 'northerners' from Alaska

(Newser) - Centuries ago, sea otters were plentiful along the Oregon coast, but the fur trade came along and wiped them out. Wildlife authorities tried to restart the population in the 1970s by transplanting otters from Alaska to southern Oregon, but the population again fizzled out for reasons that have puzzled scientists,...

Aquarium Very Sorry for Fat-Shaming Sea Otter
Never Fat-Shame
a Sea Otter. Never.
Dec 23, 2018 10:19 AM CST

Never Fat-Shame a Sea Otter. Never.

Monterey Bay Aquarium has a 'learning moment' after trying to act like the cool kids on Twitter

(Newser) - Furthering the Internet truism that 140 characters is plenty of letters to trigger an avalanche of trouble, we present to you an unlikely example: The Monterey Bay Aquarium, accused of fat-shaming one of its own sea otters and just being painful in general. As KPIX reports, the aquarium, or maybe...

Someone Is Killing California's Protected Sea Otters

4 bodies have been found, 3 of them shot, and killer could face jail

(Newser) - Before being hunted to near extinction for their pelts in the 18th and 19th centuries, sea otters littered the Pacific coast. Today the biggest threats to the 3,000 that remain are oil spills and tankers, reports the Guardian , and now a shooter on the loose near Santa Cruz, Calif....

Aquarium Teaches Asthmatic Otter to Use Inhaler

Mishka's trainers at Seattle Aquarium are trying to make it fun

(Newser) - The Seattle Aquarium has diagnosed a sea otter with asthma and is training the animal to use an inhaler. KING-TV reports Dr. Lesanna Lahner diagnosed the otter, named Mishka, after she was having trouble breathing when smoke from wildfires was in the Seattle area. "These lungs ... have more white...

Angry Otter Attacks Boy, Grandma

Tabitha Moser says she 'just heard him scream for his life'

(Newser) - A river otter attacked an 8-year-old boy and his grandmother as they were swimming in a park in Washington state yesterday morning. The boy's mother, Tabitha Moser, told King-TV that her own mother saved the boy from a worse fate in the Pilchuck River in the town of Machias....

25 Years After Valdez Spill, Sea Otters Recover

Federal study says they're back to pre-spill numbers

(Newser) - It took 25 years, but sea otters have finally recovered from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. A federal study of Prince William Sound sea otters affected by crude oil spilled from the Valdez in 1989 has concluded that the marine mammals have returned to pre-spill numbers. One big...

Fishermen Fight Enemy in Court—Sea Otters

They want otter-free zone off California coast

(Newser) - Southern California fishermen have gone to court to protect their catch from sea otters. The industry has filed a federal lawsuit demanding that the US Fish and Wildlife Service reinstate a no-otter zone off part of the coast, reports Courthouse News Service . It seems the sea otters love to hoover...

First Surrogate Otter Mom Dies
 First Surrogate Otter Mom Dies 
Mar 6, 2012 12:32 AM CST

First Surrogate Otter Mom Dies

Toola showed that rescued pups could return to the wild

(Newser) - Staff at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium are mourning the most remarkable sea otter they have ever encountered. Toola, who died at age 15, was the first captive sea otter ever to serve as a surrogate mother to others, raising a total of 13 pups, some of which now lead...

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