{"id":8066,"date":"2024-04-13T20:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T17:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=8066"},"modified":"2024-04-13T20:00:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T17:00:27","slug":"stranded-sea-otter-pups-paired-with-surrogate-moms-at-california-aquarium-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=8066","title":{"rendered":"Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California aquarium [PHOTOS]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often due to storms that separate mother and offspring.<br \/>\nThe Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is partnering with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to pair pups with surrogate sea otter mothers with the hope of teaching them life skills and returning them to the wild.<br \/>\nAs part of the program, the aquarium has successfully bonded their first surrogate mom, called Ellie, and a currently unnamed pup.<br \/>\n\u201cThat mom is going to teach them all of the behaviors that we cannot teach, being people,\u201d said Megan Smylie, the sea otter program manager at the Aquarium of the Pacific.<br \/>\n\u201cThat adult female will start to mimic behaviors that the pup should learn, will help it groom, will help it forage, will help it teach prey manipulation, how to open up shells and anything that they would need to know that humans are unable to teach them,\u201d Smylie added.<br \/>\nCalifornia sea otters are a protected species. After being relentlessly hunted for their unique fur \u2013 they have the densest hair of any animal with up to a million hairs per square inch (6.45 sq cm) \u2013 they were thought to be extinct until a colony of 50 was found off the coast of Big Sur in the 1930s.<br \/>\nNow, the numbers are up to around 3,000 but more are needed not only for the species\u2019 survival but also to protect California\u2019s near-shore ecosystems.<br \/>\n\u201cThey are a critical sort of predator in that system that keeps herbivores like sea urchins in check so that sea urchins don\u2019t overpopulate and take out kelp forests and eel grass beds, as an example,\u201d said Brett Long, a senior director at the Aquarium of the Pacific.<br \/>\nThe sea grass and kelp ecosystems are credited with creating biodiversity, protecting against climate events and are a powerful tool in carbon sequestration, Smylie said.<br \/>\nSea otters may be super cute and cuddly, but Long also says they are very territorial and are \u201cjust a wolverine in the water.\u201d<br \/>\nAnd their eating habits are pricey, as they consume 25 percent of their bodyweight every day in restaurant-quality seafood. So a 45-pound (20-kg) otter eats 10-12 pounds (4.5-5.4 kg) of seafood a day.<br \/>\nThat means that feeding an otter costs the aquarium $40,000 a year and demands constant fundraising.<br \/>\nThe two aquariums have rescued eight stranded pups and hope other organizations can join the effort to increase the population in the wild and protect the California shore ecosystem.<br \/>\n\u201cThis is a bigger purpose,\u201d said Long. \u201cThis is a higher challenge. So we invest and we invest a lot but we\u2019ve all now learned and appreciate, boy, you see that juvenile otter survive out in the wild. That feels incredible.\u201d<br \/>\n(Reuters)<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>sea otter pups. sea otter pups, surrogate sea otter mothers, California coast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often due to storms that separate mother and offspring. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is partnering with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to pair pups with surrogate sea otter mothers to teach them life skills and return them to the wild. The surrogate mothers help the pups learn behaviors like grooming, foraging, prey manipulation, and shell opening that humans cannot teach. California sea otters are a protected species and play a critical role in maintaining the balance of near-shore ecosystems. The aquariums have rescued eight stranded pups and are working to increase the population in the wild to protect the ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,4094,2552,4002,3385,6290,325,1469,2511,3343,3287,4085,4407,1823,1012,6287,456,885,864,3335,957,3260,6288,338,6289,1230,5044,962],"class_list":["post-8066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-animals","tag-beach","tag-boy","tag-california","tag-california-coast","tag-check","tag-coast","tag-costs","tag-events","tag-forests","tag-fundraising","tag-hope","tag-increase","tag-numbers","tag-otters","tag-photos","tag-popular-on-web","tag-population","tag-pound","tag-restaurant","tag-sea","tag-sea-otter-pups","tag-storms","tag-surrogate-sea-otter-mothers","tag-survival","tag-teaching","tag-water"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California aquarium [PHOTOS]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often due to storms that separate mother and offspring. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is partnering with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to pair pups with surrogate sea otter mothers to teach them life skills and return them to the wild. The surrogate mothers help the pups learn behaviors like grooming, foraging, prey manipulation, and shell opening that humans cannot teach. California sea otters are a protected species and play a critical role in maintaining the balance of near-shore ecosystems. The aquariums have rescued eight stranded pups and are working to increase the population in the wild to protect the ecosystem.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California aquarium [PHOTOS]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often due to storms that separate mother and offspring. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is partnering with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to pair pups with surrogate sea otter mothers to teach them life skills and return them to the wild. The surrogate mothers help the pups learn behaviors like grooming, foraging, prey manipulation, and shell opening that humans cannot teach. California sea otters are a protected species and play a critical role in maintaining the balance of near-shore ecosystems. The aquariums have rescued eight stranded pups and are working to increase the population in the wild to protect the ecosystem.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=8066\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ch.jfdi.cc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-13T17:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/stranded-sea-otter-pups-paired-with-surrogate-moms-at-california-aquarium-photos.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"PhileNews (Cyprus)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"PhileNews (Cyprus)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"PhileNews (Cyprus)\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b84b88c4fd397cc2d0104b41d48fad84\"},\"headline\":\"Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California aquarium [PHOTOS]\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-13T17:00:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066\"},\"wordCount\":482,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/stranded-sea-otter-pups-paired-with-surrogate-moms-at-california-aquarium-photos.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"000\",\"Animals\",\"beach\",\"boy\",\"california\",\"California coast\",\"check\",\"coast\",\"costs\",\"events\",\"forests\",\"fundraising\",\"hope\",\"increase\",\"numbers\",\"otters\",\"photos\",\"Popular on Web\",\"population\",\"pound\",\"restaurant\",\"sea\",\"sea otter pups\",\"storms\",\"surrogate sea otter mothers\",\"survival\",\"teaching\",\"water\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Other\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066\",\"name\":\"Stranded sea otter pups paired with surrogate moms at California aquarium [PHOTOS]\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=8066#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/stranded-sea-otter-pups-paired-with-surrogate-moms-at-california-aquarium-photos.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-13T17:00:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b84b88c4fd397cc2d0104b41d48fad84\"},\"description\":\"Every year, around 10 to 15 sea otter pups are found stranded off the California coast, often due to storms that separate mother and offspring. 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