We had the pleasure of watching Sea Otters on our whale watching excursions in Alaska.
The Sea Otter is one of the few mammal species on Earth to use a tool to help feed. It will wedge a rock between its chest and foreleg and pound shells against it to open them.
The Sea Otter must consume between 25 and 40 percent of its body weight daily just to keep warm. They eat more than 100 different species and are considered a keystone species in their ecosystem.
The fur of the Sea Otter is the densest of any animal on Earth. It has no blubber to keep warm.
Although it is one of the smallest marine mammals on Earth it is the largest of the weasel family and can live its entire life without leaving the water.
During the 1700s the Russian fur trade along the North America coast, which carried on for over 150 years, almost drove the Sea Otter to extinction. The pelts were soft and provided great warmth. China was the main market for the furs.
By the end of the fur trade almost 1 million Sea Otters had been slaughtered and the total worldwide population had dwindled to about 1,000.
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