Sea otter (sea otter) lives in the tropical and temperate zone of the Pacific coast of South America. With all the measures taken to protect these animals and their legal protection, hunting for them continues today. They continue to be destroyed because of fur and leather, in addition, as competitors in the extraction of shellfish and fishing.
Description
This is the smallest otter of the genus Lontra. It has a cylindrical, dense, elongated body, strong and short legs. She has fur with hard, thick hair, an undercoat up to 12 mm long, and an outer hair up to 20 mm. Sea otters, the photo of which is presented in this article, keep the subcoat dry even when they themselves are already wet. There is no fat reserve.
The head of the animal is flat, round with rounded, low-set, small ears located on the sides of the head. A short broad muzzle with very long whiskers, a thick, short neck the width of a head. Small round eyes set high, with excellent visibility.
Its tail is conical, thick, muscular. Five fingers with strong sharp claws on their paws, have membranes. In the sea otter, the front legs are shorter than the hind legs. Nostrils and ears close when immersed in water.
The teeth are large, adapted to tear prey.
Enemies
Their main enemies are killer whales (killer whales). Young animals are also hunted by sharks, marine predatory animals and birds.
Food
Sea otters are omnivorous; they feed on the tidal zone. The diet of the animal includes crabs, shellfish, water birds, fish and other organisms that live in the sea. It happens that it comes into the river, looking for freshwater shrimp. During the ripening period, the fruit eats the fruits of plants of the bromeliad family.
Behavior
Sea otters are secretive and timid animals that lead a daily life (although periodically the otter can be active at dawn and dusk). In water, they spend up to 70% of their lives, while doing food and hunting. They swim with their upper back and head exposed.
The animal catches its prey on average 300 m from the coast, diving 30-50 m, while diving in thickets of algae and near the rocks. The dive lasts up to 30 seconds. This species does not use stones for breaking shellfish shells.
Despite the fact that sea otters are mainly aquatic animals, they periodically travel along the coast, moving away by 30 m, although when chasing prey they also go 500 m away. Animals on land climb quite well over rocks. They like to relax in the vegetation on the shore, located near the water.
At the otter, the den is a hole and a tunnel, where one of the openings leads into the thicket. At a time when she does not hunt, she rests in dense vegetation. "Homes" are used for childbirth, feeding offspring, sleep and rest. Sea otters are very fond of lying in the sun, for which they comfortably settle on stones. They arrange their burrows and rookeries where it is easy to find food.
How do sea otters sleep
In the summer, when, when the animals spend almost all the time in water, the way they sleep is incredibly touching. The young are sleeping on their mother’s breasts, gently touching their chins with their heads, and adult sea otters hold their paws together. Of course, this is not love at all, it is a necessity - while the animal is sleeping, it can be carried very far by sea current. But how touching this plexus of paws looks!
If an animal hunts alone, it prepares for itself a semblance of an anchor. The otter spins in algae for a long time, thus wrapping them on its body, and then calmly falls asleep in such an original "cocoon".
Social structure
The animal leads a solitary life. It should be noted that the average population density is up to 10 otters per kilometer of coastline. Periodically, animals are found in groups of 2-3 individuals, but no more. Basically, they settle from each other at a distance of 200 m.
These animals are not territorial, they relate without any aggression to the appearance of new individuals of their species on the site. Several females can easily get along on a common site, including hunting grounds, burrows and places of rest. Otters are periodically labeled with faeces and urine of the den and rocks, but most often they defecate where they rest.
Breeding
Little is known about him, and the facts that science still managed to establish are interpreted ambiguously by different observers. Basically, sea otters are monogamous, but in places of their large concentration (with an abundance of food resources), the development of polygamous relationships can often be observed. During mating and pairing, fights between males are often observed, and there has also been a struggle between mating pairs.
The appearance of puppies occurs in a hole in the den. The female has 2 pairs of nipples. Often the family changes their shelter in search of better places to eat, in this case, the parents carry the cubs in their teeth or swim on their backs by the sea, holding them on their belly.
Progeny
The female gives birth to 2 puppies (sometimes 4-5). For several months, lactation continues. Youth with parents remains ten months. At the same time, the adult generation brings young food and teaches them to hunt.
The benefits to humans
As already mentioned at the beginning of the article, for many years a sea otter was chased by a person because of its skin and fur, and was also killed as a competitor in shellfish mining and fishing. An animal caught at a young age is very easily domesticated, trained, and is also used later by fishermen.
Population
It should be noted that sea otters were included in the documents of the CITES Convention and the International Red Book, but the hunt for them continues, despite the laws adopted on the protection of the species.
