Shedd Aquarium adopts orphaned sea otter
Staff report January 26, 2012 8:46AM
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Updated: February 28, 2012 8:13AM
It has no motter or fotter. So Shedd Aquarium will provide a home to an orphaned sea otter. The 10-week-old female pup is the first southern sea otter at the aquarium, which already had Alaskan otters. The 15-pound pup was found stranded near Cayucos, Calif., in early December and came to Shedd as part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conservation program. Pups usually stay with their mothers until they’re 8 months old. Sea otters — part of the weasel family — are the smallest marine mammals. While whales have blubber to maintain their body heat, sea otters keep warm thanks to two layers of thick fur. They spend as much as four hours a day grooming to ensure that it continues to protect them from cold and hypothermia, according to Shedd officials. The otter’s diet: crabs, clams, abalone, sea urchins, octopus and other animals that live at the bottom of the sea but near the shore.
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