Sea otters don't mate for life. At the time of mating, the male and female form a pair bond that lasts three to five days. Females sometimes mate with the same male in subsequent years, although not always. See similar questions...

Sea lions do not mate for life. Females often mate with the male who is holding the breeding territory, where they give birth. She also may seek out another male she prefers. She can mate with more than one male in a breeding season. Dominant males that hold breeding territories typically mate with up to 40 females each breeding season. In subsequent seasons, other males may hold the territories. Males can grow up to about 1000 pounds; they reach full size after about 10 years. See similar questions...

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA), coastal Alaska Natives living along the North Pacific or Arctic Ocean are the only people who may harvest sea otters. When the act was passed, Congress recognized the cultural importance of marine mammals to Alaska Native peoples, and included an Alaska Native exemption for their take for subsistence or handicraft, provided that marine mammals are not taken in a wasteful manner. See similar questions...

Males are sexually mature when they are about four to five years old, females when they are three to four years old. Males however, may not mate until they are 8-10 years old; when they are fully grown, more experienced, and can hold a breeding territory. See similar questions...

Sometimes, but they spend most of their lives in the ocean. Sea otters eat, sleep, mate and have their pups in the water. Occasionally, females come ashore to rest after mating, and any otter may beach itself if it's ill or injured. Remember, if you see an otter on land, leave it alone and ask other people not to disturb it. See similar questions...

sea otter's fur keeps it alive in the icy water, so each sea otter spends a couple of hours a day grooming to keep its coat in good shape. You'll often see otters rolling in the water and rubbing themselves-they're cleaning their fur and rubbing insulating air into the hairs. They're extremely limber, and their skeletons are very loosely jointed, so otters can groom every inch of their bodies-even the middle of their backs. See similar questions...

Sea otters live in loose-knit groups called rafts. Rafts typically consist of two or more resting otters. Otters in rafts often sleep side-by-side, wrapped up in strands of kelp, so that they don't drift far from each other. Males and females usually live in separate groups. Females have small home territories; they and their pups may gather in large groups. Mature males protect large territories, encompassing the territories of several females. See similar questions...

A sea otter may use rocks to crack open hard-shelled prey at the surface, either setting a rock on its stomach while floating on its back, or holding rocks with its forepaws to pound its prey. Otters may also use rocks to pry up abalone and sea urchins. Around the Monterey wharf, some otters use discarded glass bottles in the same way! No, the father leaves the mother soon after mating, and he's not involved in any way with raising the pup. See similar questions...

Southern sea otters probably have the ability to dive as deep as 300 feet (100 m), but their typical feeding dives last just a minute or two in 30 to 60 feet (9-18 m) of coastal water. See similar questions...

They have the world's densest fur-up to a million hairs per square inch! (You have 100,000 hairs or less on your whole head). A sea otter's normal body temperature is about 100? F (38? C), while the ocean is a chilly 35? to 60? F (2-16? C). Sea otters carefully groom their fur to trap a layer of insulating air bubbles between their warm skin and the icy water. But even that fur can't stop the loss of body heat. Otters need to keep that fur in good condition to stay alive in the cold water. See similar questions...

There are three subspecies: the Russian, Alaskan and California sea otters. The California subspecies is also called the southern sea otter . They're all sea otters (Enhydra lutris), but each subspecies differs slightly in size and body shape. California sea otter: Enhydra lutris nereis Alaskan sea otter: Enhydra lutris kenyoni Russian sea otter: Enhydra lutris lutris See similar questions...

Females usually give birth to one pup a year, although twin births occur occasionally. If twins are born, the mother may have to abandon one because raising just one pup requires so much energy, or because one pup dies, when it's significantly weaker than the other one. See similar questions...

By 1900, the Southern sea otter was thought to be extinct. But in 1915, biologists discovered a group of about 50 otters that had survived in a remote Big Sur cove. To protect these last survivors, the biologists kept them a secret until 1938, when many people saw the otters as Highway 1 was built along the coast. All of today's California sea otters descend from the tiny Big Sur colony. See similar questions...

Without blubber, sea otters lose a lot of heat to the water. To stay warm in cold water, a sea otter burns calories at nearly eight times the rate you do. An otter fuels its fast metabolism by eating up to a quarter of its weight in food a day. (A 160-pound (73 kg) person would have to eat about 40 pounds (18 kg) of food a day to match that!) See similar questions...

Sea otters find prey along rocky shores, on sandy seafloors and in coastal wetlands. In California, sea otters are closely associated with the kelp forest. Many kinds of prey live on and among the kelp, and the otters often wrap themselves in kelp strands to stay close to their favorite feeding grounds when resting. Sea otters actually help the kelp forest to thrive by eating sea urchins. See similar questions...

The gestation period for a sea otter is about six months. The female otter is able to delay implantation of the fertile egg for several weeks. Some scientists suggest that this may help ensure that the pups are born when food is plentiful. The exact mechanism that controls implantation is not known. See similar questions...

Our Sea Otters exhibit section and Sea Otters Research and Conservation (SORAC) section have more information on sea otters and what you can do to help them survive. See similar questions...

Sea otters once ranged along the rim of the Northern Pacific, from Japan across the Arctic and down to Baja California. The population numbered between 150,000 to 300,000 animals. But fur traders seeking their lush pelts hunted the otters nearly to extinction in the 1700s and 1800s. Today, there are small populations of sea otters along the coasts of Russia, Alaska and central California. See similar questions...