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Where they live The Sea Otter lives California, but once lived as far as Japan. In the last 100 years they have decreased from 20,000 to 1,800. The main threats to it is pollution from oil spills and other chemicals, and becoming trapped in fish nets. Predators Besides sharks the only other natural enemy is the bald eagle. To feed it's young an eagle parent may swoop down and snatch a young pup from the water while its mother is out looking for food. Babies Sea otter pups are born in the water and on land. They weigh 4 to 5 pounds at birth. The pups spend most of there time on their mothers chest so they can keep warm and safe. When escaping from danger, a sea otter mother tucks her pup under her foreleg and dives. If the pup is much larger then she will sink her teeth into the loose fur and dive. One of the very first things a sea otter pup needs to learn is how to groom its fur. A good way for a pup to do this is by watching its mother. Pups must also learn how to dive, what foods to eat, and how to use a rock to crack open seashells. Structure Sea otters have very flexible spines. This allows them to bend there bodies backward and forward in a complete circle. A flexible spine also enables a sea otter to reach every inch of its body while cleaning its fur. Sea otters have strong jawbones and large, rounded teeth to help them crush the hard shells of clams, crabs, mussels, abalone, and sea urchins. Big lower teeth called incisors{ in-SIZE-urs}, are used to scoop out the meat out of the shells. Diet The Sea Otters diet mainly consist of clams, sea urchins and seaweed. You are probably wondering how a sea otter can open up a clam or a sea urchin. What it does is it finds a rock and smashes the clam or sea urchin on it and then eats the remains. Seaweed is a pretty good diet for the sea otter. Intelligence The sea otter can be very intelligent at times. Take for example it will wrap its body in seaweed when it goes to get food so it won't drift off. |